TIMELINE CONTINUED

The news comes as a big relief for Baryshnikov but prompts Toronto Star reader Stanley A. Middleton, presumably not a ballet fan, to write to the paper to express his outrage — “Why in hell …?” — at Andras’s decision.

July 3, 1974

With Baryshnikov resistant to appearing in public but concerned about the erroneous stories beginning to circulate, he sends Jim Peterson to meet the press in Toronto. Peterson takes the opportunity to get a written confirmation of the immigration permit.

July 4, 1974

Baryshnikov agrees to an exclusive interview, later widely quoted. He wants it to be with a young writer and a dance critic and agrees that it should be John Fraser. The 30year-old journalist arrives at the Stewart farm that evening. The story is emblazoned on the paper’s Saturday edition front page.

July 7, 1974

Fraser discovers his apartment has been broken into by someone eager to find where Baryshnikov is hiding. He discounts the idea that it’s the KGB and suspects a rival journalist. Fraser concedes he used to hide a key under the frontdoor mat.

Baryshnikov, meanwhile, transfers to an island in Lake Muskoka.

July 8, 1974

Peterson, Baryshnikov and Dina Makarova meet with National Ballet of Canada officials. Plans are made for him to appear with the company. Dina is already in close touch with American Ballet Theatre and discussing a possible New York engagement for Baryshnikov.

Meanwhile, a general election, triggered in May when opposition parties ganged up to defeat the Liberal minority government’s budget, gives prime minister Pierre Trudeau an overall majority.

July 10, 1974

Baryshnikov comes out of hiding to “sign on” as a guest artist with the National Ballet of Canada and immediately dives into work at the company’s St. Lawrence Hall studios to learn legendary dance star Erik Bruhn’s staging of the Danish classic “La Sylphide.” Bruhn is there to coach the young Russian.

CBC plans a television special about Baryshnikov. It is completed in record time with three days of shooting in the CBC’s concrete-floored legendary Studio 7 on Mutual Street. (It was still 17 years before CBC started moving its operations to Front Street, freeing up land on which the National Ballet School constructs its new building.)

July 21, 1974

The National Ballet of Canada leaves for a season in New York with Rudolf Nureyev, to open on July 23. Veteran director Harry Rasky works feverishly to get his performance documentary edited as soon as possible and ready for broadcast.

July 26, 1974

CBC Television broadcasts the Baryshnikov documentary featuring him rehearsing and performing excerpts from “La Sylphide” with National Ballet of Canada star Veronica Tennant. The timing of the broadcast is deliberately chosen to predate Baryshnikov’s nextday appearance in New York.

July 27, 1974

Baryshnikov makes his first live appearance as a free man in New York, dancing with an earlier defector from the Kirov Ballet, Natalia Makarova, in an American Ballet Theatre performance of “Giselle” at Lincoln Center’s New York State (now Koch) Theater.

Just across the plaza at the Metropolitan Opera House, the National Ballet of Canada is simultaneously performing “The Sleeping Beauty” with established superstar Nureyev.

Aug. 12, 1974

TTC workers go on strike, paralyzing Toronto’s public transit system. The strike lasts for 23 days, the longest TTC strike ever.

Aug. 14, 1974

Undeterred by a transit strike, an estimated 14,500 people, some arriving as early as 7:30 a.m., crowd the now long-gone Ontario Place Forum to watch Baryshnikov dance as a guest artist with the National Ballet of Canada, partnering Veronica Tennant in “La Sylphide.” The scene is repeated for his second performance two days later. The performances mark Baryshnikov’s first live stage appearance in Canada since his defection.