Mikhail Baryshnikov...Misha...is 77 today...in my mind, the greatest male dancer in my lifetime...in my teens I became interested in ballet...not to become a ballerina...although I did dance in local theater productions...and stretched at the barre in dance studios my freshman year of college...but to watch productions in all their glory...my Aunt Harriet and Uncle Godfrey took me to my first ballet...1975...Rudolf Nureyev...I was hooked...thank goodness for PBS...and their ballet broadcasts in the 70s...in 1977, like many others, I saw "The Turning Point"...11 Oscar noms...no wins...despite the glory of Shirley MacLaine and Anne Bancroft...but the dancing...and Misha...to say I was a fan...understatement...I wrote a poem about his dancing...back when my poems rhymed...and sent it to him care of American Ballet Theater...and one day, as I dug my hand into our mailbox...face swollen after getting two wisdom teeth pulled...there it was...a letter thanking me for the poem...signed by him...I thought I was dreaming...that is was the painkillers...oh, it was real...and sadly, lost over the years of moving and packing and life...as well as the only copy of the poem!...(I do remember a lot of it, just don't ask what I had for dinner yesterday)...my college years...I tried to see one performance of every ballet company...Martha Graham...Joffrey...Twyla Tharp...and then for my twenty-first birthday...American Ballet Theater...a gift from my mom and dad...featured dancer - Misha...pure magic...a few years later I was meeting a friend in Times Square...we were going to see "Flashdance"...as I stood waiting, I saw Misha walk by me...I followed to see where he was going...ran back...found my friend...a dance fanatic as well...we raced into the restaurant where he had gone...we sat at the bar trying to figure out how to say hello...I came up with the idea to send a glass of wine to his table...the waiter screwed up and did it while my friend had gone to the restroom...I'm not sure she forgave me...but when the waiter put that glass down...and pointed to me...my knees turned to Jello...he stood up and raised the glass to toast me...the bartender whispered..."go over there"...but I couldn't...I just smiled...all eyes now on me...that was a lifetime ago...and what a career he has had...and continues to have...artists...and art...they save us...illuminate our life when it is dark...teach us the possibilities...so, thank you Misha...for what your art has given this, at times, broken world...what it's given me...and maybe tonight I'll pour a White Russian at dinner...
