Mikhail Baryshnikov, One of World's Most Celebrated Dancers, Brings Two Evenings of Solo, Contemporary Dance to UB

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The Center for the Arts at the University at Buffalo will present "Solos with Piano or Not...An Evening of Music and Dance with Mikhail Baryshnikov and Pianist Pedja Muzijevic" at 8 p.m. on Jan. 30 and 31 in the Mainstage theater in the Center for the Arts on the UB North (Amherst) Campus.

Baryshnikov will set out on a limited international solo performance tour beginning on Jan. 23. In addition to Buffalo, the tour will visit Holyoke, Mass., followed by engagements in Burlington, Vt.; Heilbronn, Germany; London, England; Miami; Los Angeles; Seattle; Scottsdale, Ariz., and Boston.

The program will include works by American and European choreographers. Lucinda Childs has created a new solo, "Opus One," for Baryshnikov, to Alban Berg's "Sonata for Piano Op. 1." Ruth Davidson Hahn, a former principal dancer with the Mark Morris Dance Group, has set her solo to Robert Schumann's "Whims, Why?, Fable from Fantasy Pieces Op. 12," and Tere O'Connor's piece, "Indoor Man," his third for Baryshnikov, is performed to tango music by Conlon Nancarrow and David Jaggard. Cesc Gelabert's "In a Landscape" is set to John Cage's song of the same title, and Michael Clark's "Rattle Your Jewelry" is created to the music of the Beatles. Baryshnikov also will perform Eliot Feld's "Mr. XYZ," which he recently premiered as part of Ballet Tech's Joyce Theater season. The music is four songs performed by Leon Redbone.

Proceeds from the tour will be used for the construction of the Baryshnikov Arts Center, which is slated to open in late summer 2004. Located on the top three floors of the new six story complex, "W 37th Street Arts" in New York City, the Baryshnikov Arts Center will include four dance studios, office space and access to a 299-seat theater. The center will be an international, interdisciplinary home for young and established artists to use as a creative laboratory, a meeting place and a performing space in which to experiment and create new work.

For more information on Baryshnikov's career and his dance foundation, go to http://www.baryshnikovdancefoundation.org.

Tickets are $55, $50, $45 and $35. Tickets will go on sale at 10 a.m. on Dec. 20, and also will be available from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday in the Center for the Arts Box Office and all Ticketmaster locations, including Kaufmann's. To charge tickets, call 852-5000; in Canada, call 1-416-870-8000. For group sales, call 645-6771. For more information, call 645-ARTS. The Center for the Arts is a TicketFast location.