He was born on Sakhalin Island at the far eastern end of the former Soviet Union and began studying dance at age 9 in the Riga State Ballet School. He later said his mother put him there to prevent his becoming a hooligan. One of his classmates and friends at the school was Mikhail Baryshnikov. After graduating he toured with the Moscow Classical Ballet. He joined the Bolshoi in 1971; there he received rave reviews for the lead in Swan Lake, Giselle and other classical and contemporary works ...[Read Story]
