Nature & Animals Quote by Mikhail Baryshnikov

Baryshnikov is praising a rare kind of stage chemistry: not the sweaty, obvious kind, but the kind so precise it feels inevitable. Calling Fred Astaire "not a sexual animal" is a blunt clearing of the usual shortcut audiences take when they see a man and a woman move together. Astaire didn’t trade on raw libido or predatory charisma; he traded on design. Yet the punchline is that he still made his partners look "extraordinarily related" to him - a phrase that lands almost like a polite scandal. Related how? Not biologically, but kinetically: as if their bodies share a grammar.

The intent is technical admiration disguised as gossip. Baryshnikov, a dancer’s dancer, is pointing at the paradox that seduction can be manufactured through timing, touch, and spacing rather than animal heat. Astaire’s genius was to make partnership read as fate. His leads, turns, and pauses didn’t merely coordinate a couple; they staged a relationship in real time, giving the audience the illusion that connection is effortless and mutual. That’s why "made his partners look" matters. It’s an acknowledgment of power: Astaire’s control of the frame could elevate a partner into seeming perfectly matched, perfectly chosen.

Contextually, it’s also a comment on masculinity in performance. Astaire’s appeal was elegant, disciplined, almost anti-macho - and still magnetic. Baryshnikov recognizes that the deepest eroticism in dance often lives in restraint: the confidence to imply intimacy without consuming it.