A NEW LEAF

Spotlight

Mikhail Baryshnikov has never worn his heart on his sleeve. From the moment he took his first steps in the West in 1974, he was aloof, cool, crystalline, complex—a blue diamond. The closest we've gotten to knowing that enigmatic ticker came last year, at New York's City Center, when Baryshnikov turned 50 and celebrated his age by wiring up and dancing to his own heartbeat. It was star turn as both EKG and in-joke philosophy: I dance, therefore I am. Though he still shoots those Cupid's-bow jetes, Baryshnikov doesn't do air dives and whirligigs anymore (blame his half-century-old knees). He now moves in more mysterious ways.

And not just onstage. Baryshnikov in the wings has become a commanding force for American dance. Not only has he commissioned more than 30 new works for his troupe, the White Oak Dance Project, he's been known to quietly slip an evening's proceeds to other dance companies. This month, in a benefit for Dancers Responding to AIDS, Baryshnikov will perform three new works in progress in the intimate St. Mark's Church inthe-Bowery. The program is of his own design and includes choreography by three other complex talents: Neil Greenberg (using Bernard Herrmann's music for Hitchcock's Psycho), longtime collaborator Mark Morris, and the incomparable Kabuki actor Tamasaburo Bando. "I thought it would be interesting," says Baryshnikov, "to do a kind of sneak preview for high rollers, and to raise some money for this good cause."

And what about his well-known pre-performance jitters? A thing of the past? "Actually it's getting worse," Misha admits. "I don't know why. That's just me. Weak nerves." But strong heart.

LAURA JACOBS