On the night of June 29, 1974, after a performance with a touring Bolshoi Ballet troupe in downtown Toronto, Mikhail Baryshnikov made his way out a stage door, past a throng of fans and began to run. Baryshnikov, then 26 and already one of ballet’s brightest stars, had made the momentous decision to defect from the Soviet Union and build a career in the West. agents — and audience members seeking autographs — as he rushed to meet a group of Canadian and American friends waiting in a car a few blocks away. “That car took me to the free world,” Baryshnikov, 76, recalled in a recent interview. “Soviet Dancer in Canada Defects on Bolshoi Tour,” The New York Times declared on its front page.

---

Persons: Mikhail Baryshnikov, Baryshnikov, —, ” Baryshnikov Organizations: Bolshoi Ballet, Tour, The New York Times Locations: Toronto, Soviet Union, West, Soviet, Canada