Exploring Dance Mikhail Baryshnikov & Jerome Robbins an Ongoing Conversation
Marina Harss, dance writer
Jerome Robbins and Mikhail Baryshnikov first worked together in 1976, two years after Baryshnikov defected to the West, when Robbins created Other Dances for Baryshnikov and Natalia Makarova. That initial partnership marked the beginning of a long artistic collaboration that unfolded across several works, each created to illuminate a different dimension of Baryshnikov’s technique, temperament and range. From duets and ensemble pieces to the profoundly introspective solo A Suite of Dances, created in 1994, Robbins’ choreography responded closely to Baryshnikov’s evolving artistry. Often regarded as the choreographer who understood him most deeply, Robbins created dances that went beyond virtuosity to capture character and musical presence. In this lecture, Marina Harss examines the long-standing dialogue through discussion and illustrated excerpts from key works.
This presentation is part of Marina Harss' Exploring Dance series.
Marina Harss
Marina Harss
Marina Harss is a dance writer based in New York City, with her work featured in prominent publications such as The New York Times, The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, The Nation, The Guardian, Ballet Review, Dance Europe, Tanz and Dance Magazine. In 2023, Farrar, Straus and Giroux published her critical biography of choreographer Alexei Ratmansky, The Boy from Kyiv: Alexei Ratmansky’s Life in Ballet.
Harss has been recognized with the Robert and Ina Caro Research and Travel Fellowship, was a fellow at the Center for Ballet and the Arts in 2019 and is currently a fellow at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. Beyond writing, she has moderated and conducted interviews at public forums on dance, both live and online, at venues such as the Guggenheim Museum, the National Arts Club and the New York Public Library.
In addition to her contributions to dance literature, Harss is an award-winning literary translator, translating fiction and nonfiction from French, Italian and Spanish. Her translations include works by Alberto Moravia, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Dino Buzzatti, Juan Forn and Élisabeth Gille. In 2012, she received the French-American Foundation translation prize for her translation of Gille’s Le Mirador.
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