"Working is living to me"
About this Quote
"Working is living to me" lands like a credo from someone whose body has been both instrument and résumé. Coming from Mikhail Baryshnikov, it’s not hustle-culture sloganizing; it’s a blunt admission that for a dancer, the line between life and labor is thin because the work is literally embodied. You don’t clock out of your joints, your breath, your balance. If you’re not in motion, you’re aging in place.
The intent is almost defensive: a preemptive answer to the perennial question artists get asked, especially ones famous enough to be mythologized. Why keep going? Why rehearse, tour, choreograph, run a company, keep reinventing yourself? Baryshnikov’s answer refuses the sentimental framing of art as “passion” and replaces it with something harder and more adult: necessity. Work isn’t a means to life; it is the condition of feeling alive.
The subtext carries the immigrant and defector narrative too. Baryshnikov left the Soviet Union in 1974, a choice that made his career inseparable from politics, risk, and self-authorship. In that context, “working” becomes autonomy: the freedom to choose roles, collaborators, and institutions, to build a life in the West on discipline rather than permission.
It also quietly rejects the romantic tragedy of the dancer’s expiration date. Even after peak physical virtuosity, work can shift shape: from leaping to directing, from starring to mentoring. The statement insists that artistry isn’t a phase; it’s a mode of existing.
The intent is almost defensive: a preemptive answer to the perennial question artists get asked, especially ones famous enough to be mythologized. Why keep going? Why rehearse, tour, choreograph, run a company, keep reinventing yourself? Baryshnikov’s answer refuses the sentimental framing of art as “passion” and replaces it with something harder and more adult: necessity. Work isn’t a means to life; it is the condition of feeling alive.
The subtext carries the immigrant and defector narrative too. Baryshnikov left the Soviet Union in 1974, a choice that made his career inseparable from politics, risk, and self-authorship. In that context, “working” becomes autonomy: the freedom to choose roles, collaborators, and institutions, to build a life in the West on discipline rather than permission.
It also quietly rejects the romantic tragedy of the dancer’s expiration date. Even after peak physical virtuosity, work can shift shape: from leaping to directing, from starring to mentoring. The statement insists that artistry isn’t a phase; it’s a mode of existing.
Quote Details
| Topic | Work Ethic |
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