"We all grew up learning about the legacy of this man.
Of course [he was an] extraordinary legendary dancer and an even more fascinating choreographer, who brought modernism to the dance art form," Baryshnikov says.
Click below to hear the two-part interview on the parallels between Baryshnikov's and Nijinsky's career, his cooperation with Robert Wilson, as well as last year's Brodsky/Baryshnikov play that sparked a veritable theater mania in Rīga.
"Letter to a Man" is a collaboration between Baryshnikov and American avant-garde playwright Robert Wilson. It is based on Nijinsky's 1919 diaries documenting the young man’s descent into madness.
Nijinsky died in 1950 after spending more than 30 years in a mental institution.