Sally Banes is one of the leading dance historians in the United States. With such works as Dancing Women: Female Bodies on Stage and Democracy's Body: Judson Dance Theatre 1962-1964, she details the history of dance and explores issues of representation and movement in the art of dancing. She also examines the influence and aspects of feminist ideology related to dance. Banes graduated from New York University and was involved in the theatre in the 1970s and 1980s. She has worked as a critic for the Soho Weekly News and the Village Voice. Banes is the Hannah Winter Professor of Theatre History and Dance Studies at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.
Born in Riga, Latvia, in 1948, Mikhail Baryshnikov is one of the twentieth-century's most exciting and popular dancers. After initial training at the Riga Choreography School, Baryshnikov began his career in Leningrad with the famed Kirov Ballet. While hile on tour in Canada in 1974, he defected and immediately began dancing for the National Ballet of Canada and then the American Ballet Theatre in the United States. His amazing talent, matchless technique, and dynamic style soon made him an international star, rivaling his compatriot Rudolph Nureyev. Much in demand, Baryshnikov has worked with a number of choreographers, including George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Frederick Ashton, and… modern choreographer Twyla Tharp whose Push Comes to Shove (1976) has become a kind of signature piece for the dancer. A number of roles have been created especially for Barushnikov, including Frederick Ashton's last important work, Rhapsody (1980). In 1980 Baryshnikov became artistic director of the American Ballet Theatre, but he left the company in 1989 to pursue other opportunities, including experimenting in modern dance with Mark Morris, one of America's most important young choreographers. In addition to his work in ballet and modern dance, Baryshnikov has also appeared in several films, including The Turning Point (1977), White Knights (1985), and Dancers (1987). In recent years Baryshnikov has focused more on modern dance than on ballet.