The Magic of Misha

His full name is Mikhail Nikolaevitch Baryshnikov, but even before he defected from the Soviet Union to dance in the West in 1974, many of us presumed to call him Misha. Anyone who cared anything about dance knew him as extraordinary from the beginning of his training at the Vaganova School in Leningrad, back in the 1960s. (Dance critic Clive Barnes, observing the young Baryshnikov at work in class, described him as "the most perfect dancer I have ever seen.") But there was more than incredible dance ability to Baryshnikov; there was a charm, that boyish smile, that tousled hair, that-well, let's just say it-that sex appeal that broadened his audience far beyond the usual dance aficionados and led him to become a movie star (The Turning Point, White Nights) as well.

Nearly 30 years after making his debut with the American Ballet Theatre in Giselle, Baryshnikov is still dancing, albeit no longer with a big classical company like ABT, which he served as artistic director in the 1980s. Since 1990, he has been director and dancer with the White Oak Dance Project, a sort of itinerant modern troupe which he co-founded with Mark Morris, and which gives him both the opportunity to still flex his own dance muscles and to draft other dancers and choreographers into expressing their visions.

But when he turns up at 8 p.m. June 3 at the Phil, he'll be going it solo, except for Bosnian-born Pedja Muzijevic, who'll accompany him on piano for the six works of contemporary movement that are on the program. Among them: new works by Tere O'Connor, London's Michael Clark, Barcelona's Cesc Gelabert and Ruth Davidson Hahn and Lucinda Childs, who'll also be represented by her Largo, set to music by Arcangelo Corelli, which was commissioned by Baryshnikov Productions in 2001.

It can't be easy being a legend. But the man Time magazine once hailed as "the greatest living dancer" seems to wear it well in his middle-aged years. "Working is living to me," he once said, and audiences rejoice that he is still at work.

Tickets for this evening of music and dance are $65 for adults, $30 for students. Call the Phil at 597-1900 to see if any remain.