1974, MIKHAIL BARYSHNIKOV DEFECTS FROM THE USSR

Today, The Grandma has been reading about Mikhail Baryshnikov, the Latvian and American dancer, who defected from the USSR on a day like today in 1974.

Mikhail Nikolayevich Baryshnikov, in Latvian Mihails Barišņikovs (born January 28, 1948) is a Latvian and American dancer, choreographer, and actor. He was the preeminent male classical ballet dancer of the 1970s and 1980s. He became a noted dance director.

Born in Riga, Latvian SSR, into 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 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 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.

More information: Instagram-Mikhail Baryshnikov

Mikhail Baryshnikov was born in Riga, in the Latvian SSR, Soviet Union, now known as Latvia. His parents were ethnic Russians: his mother was Alexandra (a dressmaker) and his father was Nikolay (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's talent was obvious from his youth, but being 165 cm or 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 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 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 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.

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 a principal of the New York City Ballet, run by George Balanchine.

Baryshnikov returned to the American Ballet Theatre in September 1980 as an artistic director, a position he held until 1989.

From 1990 to 2002, Baryshnikov was artistic director of the White Oak Dance Project, a touring company he co-founded with Mark Morris.

In 2003, Baryshnikov won the Prix Benois de la Danse for lifetime achievement.

In 2005, he launched the Baryshnikov Arts Center in New York.

More information: The New York Times

 I do not try to dance better than anyone else.
I only try to dance better than myself.

Mikhail Baryshnikov.

MARIJA NAUMOVA SINGS 'I WANNA', LATVIA FIRST WIN

Marie N won Eurovision in 2002

Today, The Grandma has been talking with The Watsons about Marie N, the Latvian singer who won the Eurovision Song Contest representing her country in 2002 singing I Wanna.

Latvia has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 20 times since making its debut at the contest in 2000, where the group Brainstorm finished third with the song My Star.

Before talking about Marie N, The Grandma has offered a new Cambridge Key English Test A2 Example to The Watsons.

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Marija Naumova (born 23 June 1973 in Latvia) is a Latvian singer.

Under the stage name Marie N, she sings a broad range of music ranging from pop to musical theatre and jazz, and has recorded several albums, with songs in Latvian, French, English, Russian and Portuguese.

Naumova was discovered by famous Latvian musician Raimonds Pauls in 1994 and after a year she performed on TV in searches for talent. She never won, but was noticed by the audience.

In 2002, she won the Eurovision Song Contest for Latvia with her song I Wanna.

In 1998, she performed in a concert celebrating the 100 years jubilee of George Gershwin. In March 1998 she performed on stage in concerts with famous Latvian musicians, and one of those concerts was recorded on CD. That gave her career a boost and she began to participate in several music events, television and radio shows, and give interviews for Latvian newspapers.

Naumova's first solo album, which was completely in Russian, was released in 1999. In 2000 Latvia participated in the Eurovision Song Contest for the first time. Naumova was in the national finals but came second behind Brainstorm. 

In 2001, she again participated in the Latvian preselection, singing Hey Boy Follow Me, which was voted public favourite but was not chosen by the expert jury. Naumova had to wait another year before she was finally chosen to represent Latvia with I Wanna, for which she also wrote the music and co-wrote the lyrics.

More information: All Music

In the Eurovision Song Contest 2002, her performance of I Wanna won the competition and gave Latvia its first ever Eurovision win.

According to author and historian John Kennedy O'Connor in his book The Eurovision Song Contest-The Official History, despite its success at the contest, I Wanna gained the dubious distinction of being the first Eurovision winner that was not released outside of its own territory. Even in Latvia the single never reached the top 30.

In November of her victory year she recorded two new solo albums: one in English, and one in Latvian. She presented the albums to the audience with a tour throughout Latvia.

Marie N won Eurovision in 2002

Naumova co-hosted the Eurovision Song Contest 2003 along with Renars Kaupers of the Latvian band Brainstorm, who came 3rd in the contest in 2000.

In 2004, Marie N successfully combined her singing and acting talents in the lead role of The Sound of Music.

In December Marie N's latest album On My Own was released, with songs in Latvian, French, English and Portuguese. New compositions for Marie N are composed by Sergey Manoukyan, Ivar Must and Andrejs Jevsjukovs. Marie N has written several songs herself, as well. There are cover versions of several world-famous songs in the album -for example, two compositions which were originally written in French, but became very popular in English language.

Marija Naumova has a law degree from the University of Latvia. In 2005, she was chosen as the UNICEF goodwill envoy to Latvia.

As of 2012 she is on a musical hiatus to concentrate on her personal life. She is living in France with her family but still travels back and forth to Latvia.

I Wanna, also known in its original version as I Wonna, was the winning song in the Eurovision Song Contest 2002 performed in English by Marie N representing Latvia. With this victory, Latvia became the second Baltic state to win the Contest, Estonia had achieved the feat one year earlier.

The song was performed twenty-third on the night, following Slovenia's Sestre with Samo ljubezen and preceding Lithuania's Aivaras with Happy You. At the close of voting, it had received 176 points, placing 1st in a field of 24. The song, however, was a commercial failure both in Latvia and Europe.

Marie, along with Brainstorm lead singer Renārs Kaupers, would go on to host the Eurovision Song Contest 2003.

The song is particularly famous for Marie's performance. She began wearing a white suit and a trilby hat, which was removed by one of her dancers. As the song continued, other dancers removed her suit jacket and her dark shirt, revealing the top of a red dress. The suit trousers were then removed, revealing the bottom half of the short dress.

On the final beat of the song, the hem was pulled, revealing the dress to be much longer. This visual performance was also supported by a Salsa-style song, which made full use of the more up-beat tempos increasingly finding success in the Contest.

More information: Wiwi Blogs

Today you think you are the winner
Today you think you are the king
You make me sweat in my emotions
Under your fly-away, fly-away wing.
 

Marie N

NATALIA BEAN: LATVIAN IMPETUS FROM THE SPACE

Natalia Bean with Valentina Tereshkova

Natalia Bean. Astronaut. Latvia.

I was born in Riga, the capital of Latvia one of the Baltic Republics. Living in a small country offers to you a particular vision of life. This is the reason because of I decided to have another one and I became an astronaut. When you're in the space you feel like an ant and realize the magnitude of the Earth without borders during the day, full of light during the night. I like Mexican culture and photography.

-Good morning, Natalia Bean, and thanks to attend us.

-Good morning. Welcome to my country, one of the most prosperous of the European Union.

-Thanks. It's always a pleasure being here. Well, to start this interview I would like to know how you define yourself.

-I'm an astronaut, a person who travels in space and tries to search answers to thousands of human questions.

-The most part of people, when they were children wanted to be an astronaut. How can you explain them to them?

-Yes, it's true. An astronaut or a firefighter. I don't know but perhaps an explanation could be that children are honest and maybe they perceive astronauts and firefighters like modern heroes. Everybody wants to be a superhero when he/she is a child because a superhero represents good things and because of they are still innocent, they have the superheroes like someone to imitate. A child always imitates the things that he/she sees. It's normal. They're under an age of knowledge and learning.

-Then, do you believe in heroes?

-Yes, of course. Everybody can be a hero, because a hero isn't a superhero. A superhero is a modern creation, a person who has incredible powers but a hero is a person who resists adversity and fight against it. Then, in our society, we can find millions of examples of heroes.

-How do you feel being a member of The Beans family?

-It's a good experience. The family is a group of fantastic people and I'm very proud of being a part of them. It has been a great experience to open happiness.

-How is a normal day with The Beans?

-It's difficult to talk about a normal day with The Beans because we're a family full of energy and creativity and then all is possible and they can change all things in a second but I must accept that I've revised my English with them.

-How long have you been studying English?

-Although I'm Latvian, I come from a multicultural family with different origins. This is the reason because of knowing English isn't strange for me but I didn't study English at school, I studied Russian when we were a part of the USSR, and Latvian at home. Later, when we recovered our independence in 1990, we could study Latvian again at school. I come from a Jewish family, then I also speak Jewish.

-Russian? It's a difficult language, isn't it?

-No, exactly. The secret of learning a language is starting as young as you can. If you're a child, you're like a sponge and you can absorb as information as you want in different languages. Nothing happens. When you became older, your brain put all words in order and with its correspondent language. It's fascinating.

-Then, you speak four languages? Is it very difficult to do it?

-No it isn't. In fact, as many languages you speak is easier to learn the next. I have learnt this from The Beans. All of them speak, at least, two languages and this is very important because a language is a powerful tool of communication and, in my case, these four languages mean four different alphabets, too: Germanic, Cyrillic, Greek and Jewish.

-What can you explain about your life with The Beans?

-It's a great experience. I spend my life up, in the sky and it's good to stay with your feet on the land and pay attention about the reality from another point of view. I've spent good moments with them.

-And after?

-When we started as a family, we arrived with different ideas, knowledge and perspectives. During my experience as a Bean, we have been working together and we've created a good team. This is something that we won't lose although every member of our family is going to take a different path but I'm sure that we're going to open happiness wherever we stay.

-Which is your best memory with the family?

It's very difficult to choose only one but I remember two special moments: the day that I explained them some personal adventures in Mexico and the day that I cooked some pizzas for all of them. Amazing moments!

-You like photography, don’t you?

-Yes, I do.

-What's your own favourite photo?

-I remember when we were in the space station and were flying over the Canary Islands. We could take photos of a new island that emerged from the underground next to Hierro Island. It was spectacular.

-You have also said that you like reading biographies. Which is your favourite?

-Although I have read all the biographies of the most important astronauts like Neil Armstrong or Yuri Gagarin, I must admit, especially in a day like today, that the biography which impressed me much was about Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space. It's very difficult to success in some kind of jobs which seem destined only to men. I also want to remember Sally Ride, the first American woman in space in 1983, twenty years after Tereshkova.

-Who is your favourite character?

-I haven't got a special one but I would like to think that one day, in a closer future; someone will be able to read The Beans Biography because it will mean that we have contributed to do something positive to our society.

-What title would you choose for this biography?

-Eating the world, because every day we have worked very hard to learn something new and to live unforgettable experiences while we were eating the most delicious food made by some members of our family.

-Do you like this message?

-Yes I do. It's a motivational message in the line of We can do it of Naomi Parker. If you have enough force, enough interest and enough luck you can do whatever you propose.

-What will happen if it's not possible to do it?

-Don't give up. Don't forget that if you don't find a way, you must create it. Sometimes, we follow the line created by other people and sometimes, we must create our own line, a line that will be followed by others.

-Thank you very much, Natalia Bean.

-Thanks to you.

 A bird cannot fly with one wing only. 

Human space flight cannot develop any further 

without the active participation of women. 

Valentina Tereshkova