The express train that takes wealthy New Yorkers up the Hudson River to Albany is packed with analog luxuries. There are cranks and push buttons that operate the seat back. The fires in Canada this Sunday will prevent the convoy from continuing on its way to Montreal but, luckily, it does stop near the small nineteenth-century town of Tivoli and its Kaatsbaan Cultural Park where Mikhail Baryshnikov (Riga, 1948) has decided to celebrate his 75th birthday . Laurie Anderson, Diana Krall, Mark Morris or Regina Spektor will sing to the iconic dancer on a stage set up on the fabulous grass esplanade. But… oh, the sun is shining and there is no awning for the attendees. And that rains were expected.

Benefactors and friends of the one-time ballet superstar have happily turned out for the event, contributing generously for the pleasure of occupying her venue. It is not for nothing that Baryshnikov continues to be devoted to art and the promotion of the new generations of dance. Although lately also to denounce the political situation in Russia, a country to which he has never wanted to return since he deserted in 1974: “I will never return,” he said on television.

Part of the history of American dance meets at the venue. “Yes, I danced with Misha [as her friends know her] in the 80s. We met at the American Ballet and at the Joffrey. And I had the honor of being part of the Baryshnikov and Company with which we went on tour in the US, taking the ballet to each villa”, says Valerie Madonia under the shade of a tree where she has improvised a picnic with her husband before the concert. This is Peter Marshall, Misha’s physiotherapist even after she left the artistic direction of ABT, in 1989.

Meters away is Ric Abel, a financial powerhouse who was a dancer. “I once danced with Edward Villella, the most famous at the time in the US, before Nureyev and Baryshnikov came along,” he says. The discipline of ballet forged him to succeed in that other life of abundance. If in the past he shared the stage with Misha, now he helps her finance her Arts Center…

They are all examples of how in the Anglo-Saxon world citizens are linked to the arts and artists through donations (which are really tax-reducing). They feel “blessed” to have shared the Baryshknikov era. “It is an honor to have the opportunity to thank a leader, a mentor, a role model, a unique artist who embodies artistic freedom with his own life,” the artists and the organization agree from the stage.

Karou Watanabe has been the first on stage. His traditional Japanese percussion blends with Laurie Anderson’s poetics – I dreamed I was a dog, a dog in a dog show… – which alone has attracted people who, however, didn’t expect her to perform 15 minutes. Because this isn’t a festival, it’s a tribute concert to one of the greatest artists of the 20th century… and also one of the most shy.

“Those of us who dedicate ourselves to the scene are shy. We are not celebrating birthdays. But in the case of such a huge number, here we are”, said Mark Morris, the choreographer with whom he created the White Oak Dance Project in 1990, and who appears here transmuted into a music-hall singer, with Baryshnikov himself cheering him on, umbrella in hand, from a corner of the first row.

Two artists sing to him in Russian: Regina Spektor (Moscow, 1980) and BG, Boris Grebenshchikov (Leningrad, 1953), one of the fathers of Russian rock and founder of Aquarium, who dedicates the motto of a song to the public, “what That it doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”, seeing how they decompose from the heat.

“Close the umbrellas!” shouted from the back rows ($150) to the wealthy in the first rows ($500), people who are sometimes too old for such temperatures. Desertions do not wait. A woman, worried about her mother, warms up and gives up the idea of ??seeing her idol. “I was thinking of donating to that 75th anniversary performance series, but I don’t think I will. These are not ways of treating people, without an awning, ”she says going to the aid station.

The show continues without them and they miss a magical moment. When Diana Krall dedicates the classic Come and dance with me to the honoree, he gets up and dances in front of the stage to the delight of the people, who see him from behind. The jazzwoman has been learned because she “is very Misha”, and she ends at the request of the dancer with Fly me to the moon.

Anna Baryshnikov, actress and daughter of the artist, also appears with a humorous monologue from someone who knows that sometimes she cannot “compete with her father’s love for art.” “The day I graduated, she said that that morning she had cried with emotion, but it turned out that she was listening to the Chicago Symphony,” she says, laughing. She confesses that she has just married and that at her wedding she lived with the Baryhsnikov charmant who holds out the umbrella just in time and opens it with a grace and skill “that would make Gene Kelly proud”. “You could hear the guests in unison… ‘ooooh!'” she explains, drawing more laughter.

“It’s typical of him. Instinctive and magnetic, aware that his place is in front of the crowd, but waiting until the moment when his presence is absolutely necessary. A born leader,” says the young woman, also the daughter of former dancer Lisa Reinhart. . And she adds that her father’s life’s work is to make room for others… “The only thing that matters more to her than creating art is making space for others to create it.” By the way, by getting married he has had the opportunity to change his last name, and he is still considering it. “But for the moment I enjoy hearing that from… Baryshnikov? Like that old man from Sex and the City?”

The honoree then goes on stage: “How can you compete with that!”, he manages to say. Little more. He wants to say thank you, but he gets the shyness. He is an artist.