On Nov. 3, at the Brooklyn Academy of Music
in Fort Greene, Mikhail Baryshnikov receives the Jerome Robbins
Prize – and a hug – from Robbins Foundation President Floria
Lasky, as Executive Producer Joseph Melillo and BAM President
Karen Brooks Hopkins, who received a Jerome Robbins Prize on
behalf of the Fort Greene cultural icon, look on.
The $100,000 Jerome Robbins prize is awarded for excellence in
dance arts, as per the late choreographer’s specifications.
While some may know Baryshnikov as an actor – he played the recurring
role of Aleksandr Petrovsky in the last season of HBO’s "Sex
in the City" – he made his name as a famed Kirov Ballet
soloist and New York City Ballet principal dancer.
The charismatic Russian, known to his friends as "Misha,"
was also the artistic director of the American Ballet Theatre,
and the director of (and dancer with) the White Oak Dance Project,
which he co-founded with Fort Greene-based choreographer Mark
Morris.
