Word: misha
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...American Ballet Theater it was the dancers who wept when Mikhail Baryshnikov gathered them together after last Wednesday's performance to say goodbye: "It is now or never. I have to work with Mr. B." For A.B.T. Baryshnikov's leap to Balanchine is a profound loss; "Misha" was their inspiration as well as their star, who embodied the best that the brilliant but erratic troupe could achieve...
...supper afterward they hit it off. Sizing her up, the 5 ft. 6½ in. Baryshnikov remarked, "Hhmm, good partner, right size." A few days later Gelsey was back in New York, working at the barre, when she got a phone call from a member of Baryshnikov's entourage. Misha had just decided not to return to the Soviet Union and wanted Gelsey to dance with him. Was she interested? "Well, I just flipped out," says Gelsey. "I just flipped. I remember just screaming at the top of my voice: 'What do you mean, would I dance with him? Of course...
...Onstage, Misha and Gelsey were magic from the start. A trial-run pas de deux from Don Quixote dazzled audiences in Winnipeg and later in Washington. Offstage, a love affair flared up between them, along with much professional bickering. Against a common background of rigorous classical training, Baryshnikov relied on instinct, Gelsey on analysis. Rehearsals became long and exasperating. They argued about the meaning of different positions. He: "It's arabesque, it's position." She: "No, it can be different in every ballet." There was also some competitive brain-picking. Gelsey sought the secrets of the Kirov's impeccable style...
Amid all the praise, Gelsey was becoming increasingly miserable and insecure. Her affair with Misha fizzled out when he moved on to others. Says a friend: "It was all a romantic little dream, but it did not turn out that way. It was hard on her, but not as hard as the problem of dancing with someone who gets so much acclaim...
...Swedish skier in the 1962 world championships. No wonder former California Senator John Tunney has a special love of sports. He also has a law degree and a friend who asked his help in getting the U.S. license for the 1980 Moscow Olympics logo-a Russian bear named Misha. After months of telexing messages to Moscow, Tunney got the license, and presto, he and his friend have exclusive rights in the Western Hemisphere to promote the Olympics. On the drawing board: Olympic T shirts, buckles, decals and posters, as well as special lotteries, sweepstakes and shopping-center tours...