Everyday life

Dancing is my obsession. My life.

Mikhail Nikolaevitch Baryshnikov was born on January 27, 1948 in Riga, USSR. He began studying ballet in 1960, at the age of 12. In 1964 he entered the Vaganova School to further his ballet studies. He soon began winning top honors and leading roles in major ballets. Upon seeing him dance in the Soviet Union, Clive Barnes, a New York Times critic, called him the most perfect dancer he had ever seen.

Because the Soviet dance world held fast to 19th century traditions and shunned creativity, Baryshnikov decided to move west. He first defected to Canada, then made his way to the United States. During his first two years away from Russia, he danced for 13 different choreographers.

In 1978, Baryshnikov became a principal dancer for the New York City Ballet, under the direction of George Balanchine. His distinctive style won him many leading roles, although Balanchine never created a new work for him. In 1980, he changed his role from performer to director, becoming Artistic Director of the American Ballet  Theatre.

“I cannot give myself credit as a choreographer, but there’s more of my input than when I usually work with choreographers,”

“I don’t put any goals in front of me. (…) That’s why I’m trying to keep horizons open, so I can breathe much better.”

Most of these pictures are taken by Annie Leibovitz.

Alison

She’s always using capital letters in her sketchbook sweet

Maybe next time

I don’t invite this s***… I run, it comes after me.

There’s no way out.

Can’t find the right image to express my feelings just now.. So here are my socks.

What makes me happy?

Photo by Mat Smith (London based photographer)

• Being nice to someone who bugs me
• My adrenaline starting to pump at the thought of leaving work and going home
• The inability to stop spelling the word “banana” after I’ve started
• The feeling when I can’t wait to tell somebody something
• Working too hard and getting paid for it
• Finding a cafe, having o cup of mint tea and a snack, then organizing my bag and my agenda book
• Stretching my legs and arms, yawning, and visualizing an ideal day before getting out of bed in the morning
• Taking something off the grocery shelf, deciding I don’t want it and then putting it in another section
• Searching out a piece of solitude and refreshing myself with the sound of absolutely nothing
• Families that spend leisure hours together having a chance to grow and understand one another
• Love: reaching, touching, caring, sharing sunshine, showers and flowers, happy hours together

Love is expresed by the heart

Uplifting and precious

The universe is in need of equality

‘if you pour water into a cup of tea

until it spills

you can’t pour anymore inside’

‘my heart

is the cup of tea

the water is love’

’she loved me so much,

that my heart is not capable

of accepting more

love’

I spent the whole afternoon talking to him.. trying to understand what’s going on in his mind. I will never be able to find out. One thing is for sure. He’s the most exciting person I had the chance to talk to in a while.

Photographs open doors

Sally Mann was born in 1951 in Lexington, Virginia, where she continues to live and work.

“…the things that are close to you, are the things you can photograph the best”

“…and unless you photograph what you love, you are not going to make good art”

…..I struggle with enormous discrepancies: between the reality of motherhood and the image of it, between my love for my home and the need to travel, between the varied and seductive paths of the heart. The lessons of impermanance, the occasional despair and the muse, so tenuously moored, all visit their needs upon me and I dig deeply for the spiritual utilities that restore me: my love for the place, for the one man left, for my children and friends and the great green pulse of spring. – Sally Mann – Still Time catalogue Alleghany Highlands Arts and Crafts Center, 1988

Things become art in a space where powerful ideas about art focus on them

I have measured out my life with coffee spoons.

I love her.