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