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114-448: Mikhail Nikolayevich Baryshnikov (Russian: Михаил Николаевич Барышников , IPA: [mʲɪxɐˈil bɐ'rɨʂnʲɪkəf] ; Latvian : Mihails Barišņikovs ; born January 27, 1948) is a Latvian-American dancer, choreographer, and actor. He was the preeminent male classical ballet dancer of the 1970s and 1980s. He subsequently became a noted dance director. Born in Riga , Latvian SSR , into

228-650: A caron , ⟨č, š, ž⟩ , they are pronounced [tʃ] , [ʃ] and [ʒ] respectively. The letters ⟨ģ, ķ, ļ, ņ⟩ , written with a comma placed underneath (or above them for lowercase g ), which indicate palatalized versions of ⟨g, k, l, n⟩ representing the sounds [ɟ] , [c] , [ʎ] and [ɲ] . Latvian orthography also contains nine digraphs, which are written ⟨ai, au, ei, ie, iu, ui, oi, dz, dž⟩ . Non-standard varieties of Latvian add extra letters to this standard set. Latvian spelling has almost one-to-one correspondence between graphemes and phonemes. Every phoneme corresponds to

342-511: A dead key (usually ', occasionally ~). Some keyboard layouts use the modifier key AltGr (most notably the Windows 2000 and XP built-in layout (Latvian QWERTY), it is also default modifier in X11R6, thus a default in most Linux distributions). In the 1990s, lack of software support of diacritics caused an unofficial style of orthography, often called translits , to emerge for use in situations when

456-833: A 2015 commercial for the clothing designer Rag & Bone with street dance artist Lil Buck . Baryshnikov is a performer in avant-garde theater. His breakthrough performance in Broadway was in 1989, when he played Gregor Samsa in Metamorphosis , an adaption of Franz Kafka 's novel. It earned him a Tony nomination. In 2004, Baryshnikov appeared in Forbidden Christmas or The Doctor And The Patient at New York City's Lincoln Center, and in 2007 in Beckett Shorts at New York Theatre Workshop. On April 11 to 21, 2012, he starred in In Paris,

570-452: A Case to Berkeley Rep. Both tales are about solitary men and their self-imposed restrictions. We know very little about the character in the first story, "Man in a Case," except that he teaches classical Greek and he's kind of eccentric and conservative. But then something happens to him that is unexpected. The second story, "About Love," provides an arresting contrast to the first work. At their core both stories are about love. And I think it's

684-621: A Russian artist, Aleksandr Petrovsky , who woos Carrie Bradshaw relentlessly and takes her to Paris. He co-starred in Company Business (1991) with Gene Hackman . An animated TV series, Mikhail Baryshnikov's Stories from My Childhood , appeared on American PBS networks from 1996 to 1998. The cartoons were produced by the Russian animation house Soyuzmultfilm , and redubbed by American actors, including Jim Belushi , Laura San Giacomo , Harvey Fierstein and Kirsten Dunst . Baryshnikov hosted

798-1013: A Russian family, Baryshnikov had a promising start in the Kirov Ballet in Leningrad before defecting to Canada in 1974 for more opportunities in Western dance . After dancing with the American Ballet Theatre , he joined the New York City Ballet as a principal dancer for one season to learn about George Balanchine 's neoclassical Russian style of movement. He then returned to the American Ballet Theatre, where he later became artistic director . Baryshnikov has spearheaded many of his own artistic projects and has been associated in particular with promoting modern dance , premiering dozens of new works, including many of his own. His success as

912-399: A balance extending one foot off the ground in ‘Second Position’. ( French pronunciation: [a la katʁijɛm] ) One of the directions of body, facing the audience ( en face ), arms in second position, with one leg extended either to fourth position in front ( quatrième devant ) or fourth position behind ( quatrième derrière ). ( French pronunciation: [a tɛʁ] ) Touching

1026-466: A ballet company in Italy. French word meaning a ballet performance, a ballet work, a ballet company and possibly the ballet dance genre, although the expression danse classique also exists for the latter meaning, is less equivocal and is more commonly used when referring to the learning of this dance. The foundational principles of body movement and form used in ballet. A ballet fan or enthusiast. The word

1140-541: A bell.') Refers to brushing through first position from fourth devant or fourth derrière to the opposite fourth with the upper body held upright. Can be done continuously, as is often done with grands battements and attitudes . Similar to Balançoire , which additionally allows seesaw like upper-body shifting in counterpoint to the legs. The Vaganova system may refer to en cloche as "passé la jambe" or "battement passé la jambe". ( Italian pronunciation: [ˈkoːda] ); literally 'tail'). The concluding segment of

1254-668: A broad system of education in Russian existed). The Official Language Law was adopted on 9 December 1999. Several regulatory acts associated with this law have been adopted. Observance of the law is monitored by the Latvian State Language Center run by the Ministry of Justice. To counter the influence of English , government organizations (namely the Terminology Commission of the Latvian Academy of Science and

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1368-481: A cedilla; and the postalveolars Š , Č and Ž are written with h replacing the háček , as in English. Sometimes the second letter, the one used instead of a diacritic, is changed to one of two other diacritic letters (e.g. š is written as ss or sj, not sh), and since many people may find it difficult to use these unusual methods, they write without any indication of missing diacritic marks, or they use digraphing only if

1482-405: A child, Kuldi Medne, born in 2020 is reported to be a native speaker of Livonian. Her parents are Livonian language revival activists Jānis Mednis and Renāte Medne. The Latvian Government continued attempts to preserve the dialect following the restoration of independence in 1990 and currently it is learned by some people as a hobby. The Central dialect spoken in central and Southwestern Latvia

1596-924: A classic Indo-European (Baltic) system with well developed inflection and derivation. Word stress, with some exceptions in derivation and inflection, more often is on the first syllable . There are no articles in Latvian; definiteness is expressed by an inflection of adjectives. Basic word order in Latvian is subject–verb–object ; however, word order is relatively free. There are two grammatical genders in Latvian (masculine and feminine) and two numbers , singular and plural. Nouns, adjectives, and declinable participles decline into seven cases: nominative , genitive , dative , accusative , instrumental , locative , and vocative . There are six declensions for nouns. There are three conjugation classes in Latvian. Verbs are conjugated for person, tense, mood and voice. Latvian in Latin script

1710-454: A confident, accomplished dancer. In dance (particularly ballet), arabesque (French: [aʁabɛsk]; literally, "in Arabic fashion") is a body position in which a dancer stands on one leg (the supporting leg) with the other leg (the working leg) extended, straight, behind the body. The arm positions can vary and are generally allongé. The foot of the supporting leg may be flat on the floor, on the ball of

1824-418: A dancer stands on one leg (the supporting leg) while the other leg ( working leg) is raised and turned out with knee bent to form an angle of approximately 90° between the thigh and the lower leg. The height of the knee versus the foot and the angle of the knee flexion will vary depending on the techniques. The working leg can be held behind ( derrière ), in front ( devant ), or to the side ( à la seconde ) of

1938-576: A dancer with ABT. Baryshnikov has remained fascinated with the new. As he observed, "It doesn't matter how high you lift your leg. The technique is about transparency, simplicity and making an earnest attempt." Baryshnikov also toured with ballet and modern dance companies around the world for 15 months. Several roles were created for him, including in Robbins's Opus 19: The Dreamer (1979), Frederick Ashton 's Rhapsody (1980), and Robbins's Other Dances , with Natalia Makarova . From 1990 to 2002, Baryshnikov

2052-619: A dramatic actor on stage, cinema, and television, has helped him become probably the most widely recognized contemporary ballet dancer. After his 1974 defection, Baryshnikov never returned to the USSR . Since 1986, he has been a naturalized citizen of the United States. After Latvia declared independence on 4 May 1990 , he often returned there; in 2017, the Republic of Latvia granted Baryshnikov citizenship for extraordinary merit. In 1977, he received

2166-458: A further eleven characters by modification. The vowel letters ⟨ a ⟩ , ⟨ e ⟩ , ⟨ i ⟩ and ⟨ u ⟩ can take a macron to show length, unmodified letters being short; these letters are not differentiated while sorting (e.g. in dictionaries). The letters ⟨ c ⟩ , ⟨ s ⟩ and ⟨ z ⟩ are pronounced [ts] , [s] and [z] respectively, while when marked with

2280-474: A language of its size, whereby many non-native speakers speak it compared to native speakers. The immigrant and minority population in Latvia is 700,000 people: Russians , Belarusians , Ukrainians , Poles , and others. The majority of immigrants settled in Latvia between 1940 and 1991; supplementing pre-existing ethnic minority communities ( Latvian Germans , Latvian Jews , Latvian Russians ). The trends show that

2394-531: A leg and picks it up(the leg in front). Then the bent leg is straighted on the floor and the straight leg is picked off the floor and bent. These steps are repeated over and over again. The dancer looks as if he or she is flying across the floor. ( French pronunciation: [kabʁijɔl] ; meaning 'caper.') An allegro step in which the extended legs are beaten in the air. Cabrioles are divided into two categories: petite, which are executed at 45 degrees, and grande, which are executed at 90 degrees. The working leg

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2508-595: A letter so that the reader can almost always pronounce words by putting the letters together. There are only two exceptions to this consistency in the orthography: the letters ⟨e, ē⟩ represent two different sounds: /ɛ æ/ and /ɛː æː/ . The second mismatch is that letter ⟨o⟩ indicates both the short and long [ɔ] , and the diphthong [uɔ] . These three sounds are written as ⟨o⟩ , ⟨ō⟩ and ⟨uo⟩ in Standard Latgalian , and some Latvians campaign for

2622-415: A long-term relationship with former ballerina Lisa Rinehart . They have three children together: Peter, Anna (born 1992), and Sofia. He told Larry King in 2002 that he did not "believe in marriage in the conventional way", but he and Rinehart married in 2006. Baryshnikov endorsed Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton for president in 2016 . On July 3, 1986, Baryshnikov became a naturalized citizen of

2736-634: A more rapid development. In addition, there is some disagreement whether Standard Latgalian and Kursenieki , which are mutually intelligible with Latvian, should be considered varieties or separate languages . However, in Latvian linguistics, such hypotheses have been rejected as non-scientific. Latvian first appeared in print in the mid-16th century with the reproduction of the Lord's Prayer in Latvian in Sebastian Münster 's Cosmographia universalis (1544), in Latin script . Latvian belongs to

2850-447: A new country. Of course, if somebody would ask me to choose either Paris or New York, I would choose New York. But spiritually, somehow, I love Europe." On April 27, 2017, the Republic of Latvia granted Baryshnikov citizenship for extraordinary merits. The application to the Latvian parliament, along with a letter from Baryshnikov in which he expressed his wish to become a Latvian citizen, was submitted on December 21, 2016. He wrote that

2964-507: A new play directed by Dmitry Krymov . It was presented on the Santa Monica College Performing Arts Center's Broad Stage and co-starred Anna Sinyakina. Baryshnikov then appeared in the stage adaptation of Anton Chekhov 's Man in a Case . Of the production, he said: I grew up reading Chekhov's stories and plays. I have wanted to explore a Chekhov story for the stage for some time and I'm delighted to bring Man in

3078-509: A nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and a Golden Globe nomination for his portrayal of Yuri Kopeikine in the film The Turning Point . He starred in the movie White Nights with Gregory Hines , Helen Mirren , and Isabella Rossellini , and had a recurring role in the last season of the television series Sex and the City . Mikhail Baryshnikov was born in Riga , in

3192-400: A performance or suite of dances comprising a grand pas (e.g., grand pas de deux ). A particularly large or complex coda may be called a grand coda . If a large group of dancers participate, the terms coda générale or grand coda générale may be used. The ensemble of a ballet company, especially the ensemble apart from the featured dancers. Being a part of the corps means one is neither

3306-498: A period of ill health for Balanchine that followed an earlier heart attack and culminated in successful heart surgery in June 1979. Baryshnikov left the company to become ABT's artistic director in September 1980, and take time off for his injuries. Baryshnikov returned to the American Ballet Theatre in September 1980 as an artistic director, a position he held until 1989. He also performed as

3420-695: A principal of the New York City Ballet , run by George Balanchine . "Mr. B", as Balanchine was known, rarely welcomed guest artists and had refused to work with both Rudolf Nureyev and Natalia Makarova . Baryshnikov's decision to devote his full attentions to the New York company stunned the dance world. Balanchine never created a new work for Baryshnikov, but he did coach him in his distinctive style, and Baryshnikov triumphed in such signature roles as Apollo , The Prodigal Son , and Rubies . Jerome Robbins created Opus 19/The Dreamer for Baryshnikov and NYCB favorite Patricia McBride. Baryshnikov performed with

3534-461: A radical vowel, a short vowel in the suffix, and vowel with a diacritic mark in the ending indicating two accents. Consonants were written using multiple letters following the example of German. The old orthography was used until the 20th century when modern orthography slowly replaced it. In late 1992, the official Latvian computing standard LVS 8-92 took effect. It was followed by LVS 24-93 (Latvian language support for computers) that also specified

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3648-554: A romantic show in many respects that is perfect for Berkeley Rep's audience. On April 21, 2015, The New York Times reported that Baryshnikov was scheduled to perform a reading of poet Joseph Brodsky 's work in Riga in 2015. The performance was called "Brodsky/Baryshnikov," was in the original Russian, and premiered on October 15, 2015. Its international tour began in Tel Aviv in January 2016 and it

3762-405: A soloist nor a principal dancer. ( French pronunciation: [kɔʁife] ) In some systems, a dancer of higher rank than a member of the corps de ballet, performing in small ensembles and small solo roles but not ranked as a soloist. ( French pronunciation: [də kote] ; 'sideways.') A movement traveling to the side. ( French pronunciation: [ku də pje] ; 'neck of

3876-536: A unified political, economic, and religious space in Medieval Livonia . The oldest known examples of written Latvian are from a 1530 translation of a hymn made by Nikolaus Ramm  [ lv ] , a German pastor in Riga . The oldest preserved book in Latvian is a 1585 Catholic catechism of Petrus Canisius currently located at the Uppsala University Library . The first person to translate

3990-764: Is a standard language , i.e., the Standard Latgalian, another historic variety of Latvian, which is based on deep non-Selonic varieties spoken in the south of Latgale . The term "Latgalic" is sometimes also applied to all non-Selonic varieties or even the whole dialect. However, it is unclear if using the term for any varieties besides the standard language is accurate. While the term may refer to varieties spoken in Latgale or by Latgalians , not all speakers identify as speaking Latgalic, for example, speakers of deep Non-Selonic varieties in Vidzeme explicitly deny speaking Latgalic. It

4104-521: Is a success or not", he told New York Times dance critic Anna Kisselgoff in 1976. "The new experience gives me a lot." He cited his fascination with the ways Ailey mixed classical and modern technique and his initial discomfort when Tharp insisted he incorporate eccentric personal gestures in dance. From 1974 to 1978, Baryshnikov was a principal dancer with the American Ballet Theatre (ABT), where he partnered with Gelsey Kirkland . In 1978, Baryshnikov abandoned his freelance career to spend 18 months as

4218-552: Is a tool, not a necessary item to dance. An alternating side-to-side movement of the working (non-supporting) leg. Typically performed in multiples, quickly and in rapid succession so that the working foot appears to be fluttering or vibrating. ( French pronunciation: [batʁi] ) A general term for jumps in which the legs open slightly sideways and close (crossed in fifth position) multiple times, alternating feet. (See "Battu.) ( French pronunciation: [baty] ; meaning 'beaten') A movement with an extra beating of

4332-486: Is also used. There are several contests held annually to promote the correct use of Latvian. One of them is "Word of the year" ( Gada vārds ) organized by the Riga Latvian Society since 2003. It features categories such as the "Best word", "Worst word", "Best saying" and " Word salad ". In 2018 the word zibmaksājums ( instant payment ) won the category of "Best word" and influenceris ( influencer ) won

4446-576: Is an East Baltic language belonging to the Indo-European language family and it is spoken in the Baltic region . It is the language of Latvians and the official language of Latvia as well as one of the official languages of the European Union . There are about 1.5 million native Latvian speakers in Latvia and 100,000 abroad. Altogether, 2 million, or 80% of the population of Latvia, spoke Latvian in

4560-438: Is both a step and action. It is commonly executed from cou-de-pied front to cou-de-pied back or vice versa. It may also be done from an extended leg position into fondu or directly through fifth position (as in concluding a jeté ). Coupé can only be performed through a closed leg position. The Vaganova School rarely uses the term coupé except as the preparation for specific allegros. Rather, "tombé through fifth position"

4674-457: Is conversely a movement towards the back. For example, a step travelling en avant moves forwards towards the audience, as in sissonne en avant . ( French pronunciation: [ɑ̃n aʁjɛːʁ] ; meaning 'backwards') A movement towards the back, as opposed to en avant. ( French pronunciation: [balɑ̃se] ; "balanced") A rocking sequence of three steps— fondu , relevé , fondu (down, up, down)—executed in three counts. Before

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4788-632: Is more commonly used. In the United States, "coupé" may be used to denote the position cou-de-pied, not unlike "passé" is used to denote the position retiré in addition to the action of passing through retiré. ( French pronunciation: [kuʁy] ; 'run,' past participle, as in 'making small quick steps.') In most cases, this holds the calves together and the feet in a tight fifth position en pointe or demi-pointe and travels forward, backward, or to either side. E.g. pas de bourrée couru (also called bourrée for short). ( French pronunciation: [kʁwɑze] ; meaning 'crossed.') One of

4902-401: Is of Russian origin c. 1930, with the suffix -mane coming from maniya ( mania ). Showing lightness of movement in leaps and jumps. A dancer exhibiting ballon will appear to spring effortlessly, float in mid-air, and land softly like a balloon. In classical ballet, the term ballonné is a step where the leg is extended (can be front, side, or back) at 45 degrees. The knee is then bent and

5016-629: Is one of only two to be nominated for an Emmy Award . Baryshnikov also performed in two Emmy-winning television specials, one on ABC and one on CBS, in which he danced to music from Broadway and Hollywood , respectively. During the 1970s and 1980s, he appeared many times with the ABT on Live from Lincoln Center and Great Performances . He has also appeared on several telecasts of the Kennedy Center Honors . Baryshnikov performed in his first film role soon after arriving in New York. He portrayed

5130-479: Is pronounced as /sː/ , šs and žs as /ʃː/ . Latvian has six vowels, with length as distinctive feature: /ɔ ɔː/ , and the diphthongs involving it other than /uɔ/ , are confined to loanwords. Latvian also has 10 diphthongs , four of which are only found in loanwords ( /ai ui ɛi au iɛ uɔ iu (ɔi) ɛu (ɔu)/ ), although some diphthongs are mostly limited to proper names and interjections. Standard Latvian and, with some exceptions in derivation and inflection, all of

5244-418: Is spoken by approximately 15% of Latvia's population, but almost all of its speakers are also fluent in the standard Latvian language and they promote the dialect in popular culture in order to preserve their distinct culture. The Latvian Government since 1990 has also taken measures to protect the dialect from extinction. The history of the Latvian language (see below) has placed it in a peculiar position for

5358-707: Is the basis of standard Latvian. The dialect is divided into the Vidzeme variety, the Curonic variety and the Semigallic variety. The Vidzeme variety and the Semigallic variety are closer to each other than to the Curonic variety, which is more archaic than the other two. There are three syllable intonations in some parts of Vidzeme variety of the Central dialect, extended, broken and falling. The Curonic and Semigallic varieties have two syllable intonations, extended and broken, but some parts of

5472-420: Is thrust into the air, the underneath leg follows and beats against the first leg, sending it higher. The landing is then made on the underneath leg. Cabriole may be done devant, derrière and à la seconde in any given position of the body such as croisé, effacé, écarté, and so on. ( French pronunciation: [kɑ̃bʁe] ; literally 'arched.') A bending at the waist in any direction, forward, backward, or to

5586-620: The Indo-European language family. It is classified as a part of the Baltic branch of the family. It is one of two living Baltic languages with an official status, the other being Lithuanian . The Latvian and Lithuanian languages have retained many features of the nominal morphology of Proto-Indo-European , though their phonology and verbal morphology show many innovations (in other words, forms that did not exist in Proto-Indo-European), with Latvian being considerably more innovative than Lithuanian. However, Latvian has mutual influences with

5700-496: The Latvian SSR , Soviet Union, now known as Latvia. His parents were ethnic Russians : his mother was Alexandra (a dressmaker; née Kiselyova) and his father was Nikolay Baryshnikov (an engineer). According to Baryshnikov, his father was a strict, nationalist military man, and his mother introduced him to theatre, opera, and ballet. She died by suicide when he was 12 years old. Baryshnikov began his ballet studies in Riga in 1960, at

5814-565: The Livonian , Curonian , Semigallian and Selonian languages. The Livonic dialect (also called Tamian or tāmnieku ) of Latvian was more affected by the Livonian language substratum than Latvian in other parts of Latvia. It is divided into the Vidzeme variety and the Courland variety (also called tāmnieku ). There are two syllable intonations in the Livonic dialect, extended and broken. In

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5928-456: The Livonian language . According to some glottochronological speculations, the East Baltic languages split from West Baltic (or, perhaps, from the hypothetical proto-Baltic language ) between 400 and 600 CE. The differentiation between Lithuanian and Latvian started after 800 CE. At a minimum, transitional dialects existed until the 14th century or 15th century, and perhaps as late as

6042-766: The New York City Ballet as a principal dancer for 15 months from 1978 to 1979. On July 8, 1978, he made his debut with George Balanchine 's and Lincoln Kirstein's company at Saratoga Springs, appearing as Franz in Coppélia . On October 12, 1979, Baryshnikov danced the role of the Poet in Balanchine's ballet La Sonnambula with the City Ballet at the Kennedy Center . This was his last performance with New York City Ballet due to tendinitis and other injuries. His tenure there coincided with

6156-858: The Vilcek Prize in Dance . Baryshnikov has performed in Israel three times: in 1996, with the White Oak Dance Project at the Roman theater in Caesarea ; in 2010, with Ana Laguna; and in 2011, starring in nine performances of In Paris , a show after a short story by Ivan Bunin , at the Suzanne Dellal Center in Tel Aviv . In a 2011 Haaretz interview, he expressed opposition to artistic boycotts of Israel and called

6270-693: The Windows-1252 coding, it is possible to input those two letters using a numerical keypad . Latvian language code for cmd and .bat files - Windows-1257 For example, the Lord's Prayer in Latvian written in different styles: Consonants in consonant sequences assimilate to the voicing of the subsequent consonant , e.g. a p gabals [ˈa b ɡabals] or la b s [ˈla p s] . Latvian does not feature final-obstruent devoicing . Consonants can be long (written as double consonants) mamma [ˈmamːa] , or short. Plosives and fricatives occurring between two short vowels are lengthened: upe [ˈupːe] . Same with 'zs' that

6384-516: The 17th century. Latvian as a distinct language emerged over several centuries from the language spoken by the ancient Latgalians assimilating the languages of other neighboring Baltic tribes— Curonian , Semigallian , and Selonian —which resulted in these languages gradually losing their most distinct characteristics. This process of consolidation started in the 13th century after the Livonian Crusade and forced christianization , which formed

6498-557: The 19th century, the Latvian written language was influenced by German Lutheran pastors and the German language , because Baltic Germans formed the upper class of local society. In the middle of the 19th century the First Latvian National Awakening was started, led by " Young Latvians " who popularized the use of Latvian language. Participants in this movement laid the foundations for standard Latvian and also popularized

6612-510: The 2000s, before the total number of inhabitants of Latvia slipped to 1.8 million in 2022. Of those, around 1.16 million or 62% of Latvia's population used it as their primary language at home, though excluding the Latgale and Riga regions it is spoken as a native language in villages and towns by over 90% of the population. As a Baltic language , Latvian is most closely related to neighboring Lithuanian (as well as Old Prussian , an extinct Baltic language); however, Latvian has followed

6726-420: The 2011 census Latvian was the language spoken at home by 62% of the country's population. After the re-establishment of independence in 1991, a new policy of language education was introduced. The primary declared goal was the integration of all inhabitants into the environment of the official state language while protecting the languages of Latvia's ethnic minorities. Government-funded bilingual education

6840-683: The Bible into Latvian was the German Lutheran pastor Johann Ernst Glück ( The New Testament in 1685 and The Old Testament in 1691). The Lutheran pastor Gotthard Friedrich Stender was a founder of Latvian secular literature. He wrote the first illustrated Latvian alphabet book (1787), the first encyclopedia " The Book of High Wisdom of the World and Nature  [ lv ] " ( Augstas gudrības grāmata no pasaules un dabas ; 1774), grammar books and Latvian–German and German–Latvian dictionaries. Until

6954-637: The KGB officer who followed Baryshnikov as an interpreter and gave Baryshnikov the paper. Soon, Baryshnikov joined the National Ballet of Canada for a brief time in a guest role. He also announced that he would not return to the USSR. He later said that Christina Berlin, an American friend, helped engineer his defection during his 1970 tour of London. His first televised performance after coming out of temporary seclusion in Canada

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7068-417: The Latvian dialects have fixed initial stress. Long vowels and diphthongs have a tone, regardless of their position in the word. This includes the so-called "mixed diphthongs" composed of a short vowel followed by a sonorant . During the period of Livonia , many Middle Low German words such as amats (profession), dambis (dam), būvēt (to build) and bikses (trousers) were borrowed into Latvian, while

7182-450: The Latvian language phonemically. Initially, it was used to write religious texts for German priests to help them in their work with Latvians. The first writings in Latvian were chaotic: twelve variations of writing Š . In 1631 the German priest Georg Mancelius tried to systematize the writing. He wrote long vowels according to their position in the word – a short vowel followed by h for

7296-464: The Latvian-speaking linguistic majority and for the sake of facilitating academic and professional achievements. Since the mid-1990s, the government may pay a student's tuition in public universities only provided that the instruction is in Latvian. Since 2004, the state mandates Latvian as the language of instruction in public secondary schools (Form 10–12) for at least 60% of class work (previously,

7410-530: The Latvianization of loan words. However, in the 1880s, when Czar Alexander III came into power, Russification started. According to the 1897 Imperial Russian Census , there were 505,994 (75.1%) speakers of Latvian in the Governorate of Courland and 563,829 (43.4%) speakers of Latvian in the Governorate of Livonia , making Latvian-speakers the largest linguistic group in each of the governorates. After

7524-398: The Livonic dialect, short vowels at the end of words are discarded, while long vowels are shortened. In all numbers, only one form of the verb is used. Due to migration and the introduction of a standardised language, this dialect has declined. It arose from assimilated Livonians , who started to speak in Latvian. Although initially its last native speaker, Grizelda Kristiņa , died in 2013,

7638-456: The Soviet Union followed, primarily as a result of Stalin's plan to integrate Latvia and the other Baltic republics into the Soviet Union through colonization . As a result, the proportion of the ethnic Latvian population within the total population was reduced from 80% in 1935 to 52% in 1989. In Soviet Latvia, most of the immigrants who settled in the country did not learn Latvian. According to

7752-526: The Soviet Union was to work with these innovators. On June 29, 1974, in Toronto while on tour with the Bolshoi , Baryshnikov defected , requesting political asylum in Canada. As recalled by John Fraser, a ballet critic from Toronto who helped Baryshnikov to escape, Fraser wrote down phone numbers of people on a small piece of paper and hid it under his wedding ring. At a banquet after one show he managed to distract

7866-592: The State Language Center) popularize the use of Latvian terms. A debate arose over the Latvian term for euro . The Terminology Commission suggested eira or eirs , with their Latvianized and declinable ending, would be a better term for euro than the widely used eiro , while European Central Bank insisted that the original name euro be used in all languages. New terms are Latvian derivatives, calques or new loanwords. For example, Latvian has two words for "telephone"— tālrunis and telefons ,

7980-522: The United States. Asked whether he felt like an American, he said, "I like to think like I'm a man of the world. I feel totally Parisian in Paris. Totally Parisian. I have my place here, a lot of close friends and collaborators here, whom I can really feel like I can talk serious business with them. Human business, not 'business' business. Paris was always the dream of my childhood. We grew up on French art, like all Russians. America, United States, North America—it's

8094-638: The Vidzeme variety has extended and falling intonations. In the Curonic variety, ŗ is still used. The Kursenieki language , a historic variety of Latvian, which used to be spoken along Curonian Spit , is closely related to the varieties of the Central dialect spoken in Courland . High Latvian dialect is spoken in Eastern Latvia. It is set apart from the rest of the Latvian by a number of phonological differences. The dialect has two main varieties – Selonic (two syllable intonations, falling and rising) and Non-Selonic (falling and broken syllable intonations). There

8208-412: The adoption of this system in standard Latvian. However, Latvian grammarians argue that ⟨o⟩ and ⟨ō⟩ are found only in loanwords, with the /uɔ/ sound being the only native Latvian phoneme. The digraph ⟨uo⟩ was discarded in 1914, and the letters ⟨ō⟩ and ⟨ŗ⟩ have not been used in the official Latvian language since 1946. Likewise,

8322-1120: The age of 12. In 1964, he entered the Vaganova School , in what was then Leningrad (now St. Petersburg ). Baryshnikov soon won the top prize in the junior division of the Varna International Ballet Competition . He joined the Mariinsky Ballet , then called the Kirov Ballet, in 1967, dancing the "Peasant" pas de deux in Giselle . Recognizing Baryshnikov's talent, particularly his stage presence and purity of technique, several Soviet choreographers, including Oleg Vinogradov, Konstantin Sergeyev, Igor Tchernichov, and Leonid Jakobson , choreographed ballets for him. Baryshnikov made signature roles of Jakobson's 1969 virtuosic Vestris along with an intensely emotional Albrecht in Giselle . While he

8436-408: The air and brings the second foot to meet it in the back before switching to the front to land, creating a beating action with the legs. In a brisé en arrière, the process is reversed, with the front leg brushing to the back and beating to land in front. ( French pronunciation: [bʁa kʁwaze] ; literally 'crossed arms') Arm placement in which one arm is extended in second position away from

8550-454: The audience while the other is curved in first position (Cecchetti fourth position en avant or RAD/French third position). ( Italian pronunciation: [braˈvuːra] ) A flashy, showy and elaborate style of dance that involves a lot of elaborate steps and style to similar music. Usually during a key solo. Quick movement of the feet, can be performed on pointe or on demi-pointe. The dancer straightens one leg (the leg in back) and bends

8664-489: The body. The alignment of the thigh compared to the midline in Attitude derrière will vary depending on the techniques. The foot of the supporting leg may be flat on the floor, en demi-pointe (ball of the foot), or en pointe (tips of the toes). The standing leg can be straight or bent ("fondu"). ( French pronunciation: [ɑ̃n avɑ̃] ; meaning 'forwards') A movement towards the front, as opposed to en arrière , which

8778-469: The category of "Worst word". The word pair of straumēt ( stream ) and straumēšana (streaming) were named the best words of 2017, while transporti as an unnecessary plural of the name for transport was chosen as the worst word of 2017. There are three dialects in Latvian: the Livonic dialect, High Latvian and the Central dialect. Latvian dialects and their varieties should not be confused with

8892-404: The character Yuri Kopeikine, a famous, womanizing Russian ballet dancer, in the 1977 film The Turning Point , for which he received an Oscar nomination. He co-starred with Gregory Hines and Isabella Rossellini in the 1985 film White Nights , choreographed by Twyla Tharp , and was featured in the 1987 film Dancers . On television, in the last season of Sex and the City , he played

9006-458: The company toured the United States and Brazil. He has received three honorary degrees: on May 11, 2006, from New York University; on September 28, 2007, from Shenandoah Conservatory of Shenandoah University; and on May 23, 2008, from Montclair State University. In late August 2007, Baryshnikov performed Mats Ek 's Place ( Ställe ) with Ana Laguna at Dansens Hus in Stockholm . In 2012, he received

9120-449: The country's only official language and other changes in the society after the fall of the Soviet Union that mostly shifted linguistic focus away from Russian . As an example, in 2007, universities and colleges for the first time received applications from prospective students who had a bilingual secondary education in schools for minorities. Fluency in Latvian is expected in a variety of professions and careers. Latvian grammar represents

9234-465: The death of Alexander III at the end of the 19th century, Latvian nationalist movements re-emerged. In 1908, Latvian linguists Kārlis Mīlenbahs and Jānis Endzelīns elaborated the modern Latvian alphabet, which slowly replaced the old orthography used before. Another feature of the language, in common with its sister language Lithuanian, that was developed at that time is that proper names from other countries and languages are altered phonetically to fit

9348-503: The decision was based on memories of his first 16 years living in Latvia, which provided the basis for the rest of his life. "It was there that my exposure to the arts led me to discover my future destiny as a performer. Riga still serves as a place where I find artistic inspiration", Baryshnikov wrote in the letter to the Latvian parliament . In March 2022, together with economist Sergey Guriyev and writer Boris Akunin , Baryshnikov announced

9462-448: The diacritic mark in question would make a semantic difference. Sometimes an apostrophe is used before or after the character that would properly need to be diacriticised. Also, digraph diacritics are often used and sometimes even mixed with diacritical letters of standard orthography. Although today there is software support available, diacritic-less writing is still sometimes used for financial and social reasons. As š and ž are part of

9576-423: The digraph ⟨ch⟩ was discarded in 1957, although ⟨ō⟩ , ⟨ŗ⟩ , and ⟨ch⟩ are still used in some varieties and by many Latvians living beyond the borders of Latvia. The letter ⟨y⟩ is used only in Standard Latgalian, where it represents / ɨ / , a sound not present in other dialects. The old orthography was based on German and did not represent

9690-780: The end of March, the initiative had raised more than 1.2 million euros. Specials Also appeared in "Prodigal Son", "The Steadfast Tin Soldier", "Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux", and "Other Dances", all Dance in America , PBS; Baryshnikov: The Dancer and the Dance , PBS; and Carmen , on French television. "Sex and the City: Aleksandr Petrovsky ", HBO Series Television work Series Television artistic director Specials Television choreographer Specials Latvian language Latvian ( endonym : latviešu valoda , pronounced [ˈlatviɛʃu ˈvaluɔda] ), also known as Lettish ,

9804-693: The enthusiasm for contemporary dance in Israel astounding. Baryshnikov made his American television dancing debut in 1976, on the PBS program In Performance Live from Wolf Trap . The program is distributed on DVD by Kultur Video . During the Christmas season of 1977, CBS brought Baryshnikov's ABT production of Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker to television, with Baryshnikov in the title role, accompanied by ABT performers including Gelsey Kirkland and Alexander Minz. The Nutcracker has been presented on TV many times in many different versions, but Baryshnikov's version

9918-470: The feet change positions in the air. For example, beginning in fifth position with the right foot front, plié , jump switching the right leg to the back, and land in fifth position with the left foot front. In the Vaganova vocabulary, petit changement de pieds indicates a changement where the feet barely leave the floor. (Literally 'chased.') ( French pronunciation: [ɑ̃ klɔʃ] ; meaning 'like

10032-413: The feet included, as in jeté battu . ( French pronunciation: [bʁize] ; literally 'broken') A jump consisting of an assemblé traveling either forward (en avant) or backward (en arrière), with an extra beat that "breaks" the jump in its travel. To execute a brisé en avant, the dancer demi-pliés in fifth position and brushes the back leg (through first position) to the front, then springs into

10146-550: The first count, one foot extends in a dégagé to second position ( balancé de côté ) or to the front ( balancé en avant ) or rear ( balancé en arrière ). The second foot in the sequence (in any direction) assembles behind the first to relevé in fifth or fourth position. ( French pronunciation: [balɑ̃swaʁ] ; "swing [children's toy]") Swinging the working leg between front (devant) and back (derrière) through first position , usually in conjunction with grands battements or attitudes and involving seesaw like shifting of

10260-448: The floor; on the floor. Italian, or French adage , meaning 'slowly, at ease.' ( Italian pronunciation: [alˈleːɡro] ; meaning 'happy') ( French pronunciation: [alɔ̃ʒe] ; meaning 'elongated.') Refers to a foot and leg position when the toes and knees are extended and elongated, rather than forming the usual soft curve. Can also refer to a similar arm position. The apparent elegance and precision exhibited by

10374-437: The foot (demi-pointe/relevé), or on the tips of the toes (en pointe). ( French pronunciation: [aʁɔ̃di] ; meaning 'rounded') A position of the hand. Rounded, in contrast with allongé ('stretched out', as in arabesque). ( French pronunciation: [asɑ̃ble] ; literally 'assembled') Sometimes also pas assemblé . A jump that takes off from one foot and lands on two feet. When initiated with two feet on

10488-559: The foot brought to a sur le cou-de-pied position. This can also be done as a relevé or jump. A ballotté is a jumping step in classical ballet that consists of coupé dessous and small developpés performed with a rocking and swinging movement. The step can be performed with the leg extensions at 45 or 90 degrees. A sturdy horizontal bar, approximately waist height, used during ballet warm-up exercises and training. Fixed barres are typically mounted on -covered walls; portable barres can be relocated as needed. Used for balance, not support. A barre

10602-483: The foot.') Position of the arched working foot raised to, and resting on, the ankle. This could be in front (["conditional"] devant ), behind ( derrière ), or wrapped ( sur le cou-de-pied : arch of the foot wrapped around the ankle with the heel in front of the ankle and the toes behind, often interchangeable with the devant/conditional position), depending on the activity and the school/method of ballet. ( French pronunciation: [kupe] ; meaning 'cut.') Coupé

10716-512: The formation of the True Russia foundation to support victims of the war in Ukraine . Baryshnikov condemned the Russian invasion and wrote an open letter to Vladimir Putin slamming his "world of fear". In his letter, Baryshnikov wrote that people of culture who promoted Russian art made more for Russia than Putin's "not-so-precise weapons". True Russia also aims to become a trilingual art platform. By

10830-432: The former being a direct translation into Latvian of the latter international term. Still, others are older or more euphonic loanwords rather than Latvian words. For example, "computer" can be either dators or kompjūters . Both are loanwords; the native Latvian word for "computer" is skaitļotājs , which is also an official term. However, now dators has been considered an appropriate translation, skaitļotājs

10944-417: The ground (e.g. from fifth position) the working leg performs a battement glissé / dégagé , brushing out. The dancer launches into a jump, with the second foot then meeting the first foot before landing. A petit assemblé is when a dancer is standing on one foot with the other extended. The dancer then does a small jump to meet the first foot. ( French pronunciation: [atityd] ) A position in which

11058-682: The period of Swedish Livonia brought loanwords like skurstenis (chimney) from Swedish . It also has loanwords from the Finnic languages , mainly from Livonian and Estonian . There are about 500 to 600 borrowings from Finnic languages in Latvian, for example: māja ‘house’ (Liv. mōj ), puika ‘boy’ (Liv. pūoga ), pīlādzis ‘mountain ash’ (Liv. pī’lõg ), sēne ‘mushroom’ (Liv. sēņ ). Loanwords from other Baltic language include ķermenis (body) from Old Prussian , as well as veikals (store) and paģiras (hangover) from Lithuanian . The first Latvian dictionary Lettus compiled by Georg Mancelius

11172-549: The phonological system of Latvian, even if the original language also uses the Latin alphabet. Moreover, the names are modified to ensure that they have noun declension endings, declining like all other nouns. For example, a place such as Lecropt (a Scottish parish) is likely to become Lekropta; the Scottish village of Tillicoultry becomes Tilikutrija. After the Soviet occupation of Latvia ,

11286-693: The policy of Russification greatly affected the Latvian language. At the same time, the use of Latvian among the Latvians in Russia had already dwindled after the so-called 1937–1938 Latvian Operation of the NKVD , during which at least 16,573 ethnic Latvians and Latvian nationals were executed. In the 1941 June deportation and the 1949 Operation Priboi , tens of thousands of Latvians and other ethnicities were deported from Latvia. Massive immigration from Russian SFSR , Ukrainian SSR , Byelorussian SSR , and other republics of

11400-470: The proficiency of Latvian among its non-native speakers is gradually increasing. In a 2009 survey by the Latvian Language Agency 56% percent of respondents with Russian as their native language described having a good knowledge of Latvian, whereas for the younger generation (from 17 to 25 years) the number was 64%. The increased adoption of Latvian by minorities was brought about by its status as

11514-572: The program, Waters visited Baryshnikov's Arts Center in New York City. The Hell's Kitchen Dance tour brought him to Berkeley to visit her restaurant Chez Panisse . On July 17, 2007, the PBS News Hour with Jim Lehrer featured a profile of Baryshnikov and his Arts Center. He appears, uncredited, in the 2014 film Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit as Interior Minister Sorokin. In a continuation of his interest in modern dance , Baryshnikov appeared in

11628-644: The show, presenting his favorite folktales, including Beauty and the Beast: A Tale of the Crimson Flower , The Snow Queen , The Last Petal and The Golden Rooster . The episodes were also released on home video. On November 2, 2006, Baryshnikov and chef Alice Waters were featured on an episode of the Sundance Channel 's original series Iconoclasts . The two have a long friendship. They discussed their lifestyles, sources of inspiration, and social projects. During

11742-486: The side. ( French pronunciation: [ʃɛne] ; 'chained', plural.) Also known as "chaînés turns", a common abbreviation for tours chaînés déboulés , a series of quick, 360 degree turns that alternate the feet while traveling along a straight line or in a circular path. Each foot performs a half turn, with feet held in a tight first position en pointe or demi-pointe . ( French pronunciation: [ʃɑ̃ʒmɑ̃] ; literally 'change, changing.') A jump in which

11856-441: The upper body in opposition to the legs. Similar to en cloche . (Italian) A principal female ballet dancer in a ballet company. Ballerinas get more lead roles, which are referred to as principal roles as they are generally danced by principal dancers. Soloists also often dance in principal roles, but most of the time not in the first cast of the show (i.e. the cast that performs the most shows) An informal term for male dancers in

11970-472: The user is unable to access Latvian diacritic marks (e-mail, newsgroups, web user forums, chat, SMS etc.). It uses the basic Modern Latin alphabet only, and letters that are not used in standard orthography are usually omitted. In this style, diacritics are replaced by digraphs – a doubled letter indicates a long vowel (as in Finnish and Estonian); a following j indicates palatalisation of consonants, i.e.,

12084-449: The way Latvian language (alphabet, numbers, currency, punctuation marks, date and time) should be represented on computers. A Latvian ergonomic keyboard standard LVS 23-93 was also announced several months later, but it did not gain popularity due to its need for a custom-built keyboard. Nowadays standard QWERTY or the US keyboards are used for writing in Latvian; diacritics are entered by using

12198-566: Was artistic director of the White Oak Dance Project , a touring company he co-founded with Mark Morris . The White Oak Project was formed to create original work for older dancers. In a run ending just short of his 60th birthday in 2007, he appeared in a production of four short plays by Samuel Beckett directed by JoAnne Akalaitis . Baryshnikov was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1999. In 2000, he

12312-429: Was available in primary schools for ethnic minorities until 2019 when Parliament decided on educating only in Latvian. Minority schools are available for Russian , Yiddish , Polish , Lithuanian , Ukrainian , Belarusian , Estonian and Roma schools. Latvian is taught as a second language in the initial stages too, as is officially declared, to encourage proficiency in that language, aiming at avoiding alienation from

12426-714: Was awarded the National Medal of Arts . In 2003, Baryshnikov won the Prix Benois de la Danse for lifetime achievement. In 2005, he launched the Baryshnikov Arts Center in New York. For the duration of the 2006 summer, Baryshnikov went on tour with Hell's Kitchen Dance, which was sponsored by the Baryshnikov Arts Center. Featuring works by Baryshnikov Arts Center residents Azsure Barton and Benjamin Millepied ,

12540-493: Was first based upon the German orthography , while the alphabet of the Standard Latgalian variety was based on the Polish orthography . At the beginning of the 20th century, it was replaced by a more phonologically consistent orthography. Today, the Latvian standard orthography employs 33 characters: The modern standard Latvian alphabet uses 22 unmodified letters of the Latin alphabet (all except ⟨q, w, x, y⟩ ). It adds

12654-433: Was published in 1638. The first grammar of the Latvian language is a short “Manual on the Latvian language” ( Latin : Manuductio ad linguam lettonicam ) by Johans Georgs Rehehūzens  [ lv ] , published in 1644 in Riga. En pointe ( French pronunciation: [a la səɡɔ̃d] ) (Literally "to second") If a step is done "à la seconde", it is done to the side. 'Second position'. It can also be

12768-706: Was staged in New York City in March 2016. (Baryshnikov met Brodsky in 1974, soon after Soviet authorities had forced Brodsky to leave his home country and he moved to the United States. They remained friends until Brodsky's death in 1996.) Baryshnikov has a daughter, Aleksandra "Shura" Baryshnikova (born 1981), from his relationship with actress Jessica Lange . When Baryshnikov and Lange met, he spoke very little English; they communicated in French instead. He eventually learned English by watching television. From 1982 to 1983 he dated Tuesday Weld , Lange's best friend. Baryshnikov has had

12882-602: Was still in the Soviet Union, New York Times critic Clive Barnes called him "the most perfect dancer I have ever seen." Baryshnikov's talent was obvious from his youth, but being 5' 5" (165 cm) or 5' 6" (168 cm) tall—shorter than most male ballet dancers—he could not tower over a ballerina en pointe and was therefore relegated to secondary parts. More frustrating to him, the Soviet dance world hewed closely to 19th-century traditions and deliberately shunned Western choreographers, whose work Baryshnikov glimpsed in occasional tours and films. His main reason for leaving

12996-594: Was with the National Ballet of Canada in La Sylphide . He then went to the United States. In December 1975, he and his dance partner Natalia Makarova featured prominently in an episode of the BBC television series Arena . In the first two years after his defection, he danced for no fewer than 13 different choreographers, including Jerome Robbins , Glen Tetley , Alvin Ailey , and Twyla Tharp . "It doesn't matter if every ballet

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