Baryshnikov to Tour With New Company

Mikhail Baryshnikov, who dances the choreography of Mark Morris with a series of engagements in 18 cities in the Midwest and South this fall, will skip the major metropolitan cities in his new company’s inaugural season.

Christina Sterner, spokeswoman for Baryshnikov Productions, the producer of the tour, said the 42-year-old dancer will be joined by seven other dancers from around the country as part of the White Oak Dance Project that starts in Oct. 24 and continues through mid-November. The tour will wind its way through Ohio, Florida and other parts of the South.

According to Sterner, the White Oak Dance Project was conceived as an “outlet to give people across the country an access to the work of Mark Morris, which is the important thing.” Morris, 33, will not tour with the company. If the tour is successful, Sterner said the White Oak Dance Project will visit the major metropolitan areas in the spring of 1991.

Currently Morris and the dancers for the White Oak Dance Project, including Baryshnikov, are secluded at the White Oak Plantation, in Yulee, Fla., near Jacksonville. Their sponsor is the philanthropist, Howard Gilman, who is assisting Baryshnikov Productions in booking and promoting the tour.

“It was Misha and Howard’s vision to produce this tour across the country, but Howard’s main contribution has been in providing the environment for the artistic process at this point,” said Sterner.

None of the principals have made themselves available to the press. “They’re very much in the artistic process. That’s where the focus is right now,” Sterner said.

All the dancers will remain in Yulee until the end of August, when Morris and his Monnaie Dance Group, which is based in Brussels, will begin touring the United States and Canada.

Morris is due in Los Angeles Sept. 3 to address the Dance Critics Assn. conference at Cal State Los Angeles.