When a dancer comes onstage, he is not just a blank slate that the choreographer has written on. Behind him he has all the decisions he has made in life. Each time, he has chosen, and in what he is onstage, you see the result of those choices. You are looking at the person he is, and the person who, at this point, he cannot help but be Exceptional dancers, in my experience, are also exceptional people, people with an attitude toward life, a kind of quest, and an internal quality. They know who they are, and they show this to you, willingly.
Mikhail BaryshnikovDancers are stripped enough onstage. You don't have to know more about them than they've given you already.
Mikhail BaryshnikovA country like Belgium, or socialist countries in central Europe spend more money on art education than the United States, which is a really puzzling thought.
Mikhail BaryshnikovDivinity of art, it's such a mystery. How to convince people that no matter how much money you can spend on education and art education especially, that it implants, it directs a young person for the rest of their lives, and always in the most humane and positive and dignified manner.
Mikhail Baryshnikov