Besides signing books, Mikhail Baryshnikov also danced in
L.A. this past weekend. (photo by Haley Greenwald-Gonella)

I have a new coffee table book.  It's filled with sunset-hued images of unitard-clad dancers. The title page is inscribed, in smearable ink, with Mikhail Baryshnikov's signature.
 
Just after 9:00 a.m. this past Saturday, I arrived at the Santa Monica Promenade Barnes & Noble and searched for a line stretching out the door.  There was no such line to be seen. Baryshnikov was going to be signing his book "Merce My Way" for a limited number of people fortunate enough to have garnered a wristband. Were wristbands still available?  I asked a woman standing behind a poster advertising the event. Yes, but only for people who purchased the book at that particular Barnes and Noble location.  Only these enthusiasts would be allowed into the event, which was termed by John Schatzel, the community relations manager, as a "signing only.  No talk, Q&A, etc."
 
I bought the book.
 
I asked the woman behind the poster, who declined to give her name, if there had been any buzz about the book.  She responded that the book "is just photographs.  There's been no buzz...He's performing tonight at The Broad.  We're fortunate to have him here for the signing.  There's been no press.  The signing is only an hour."
 
No buzz?  Tell that to 11-year-old Alexa Epp, a young dancer who drove down from Bakersfield for the signing.  Baryshnikov "is a brilliant dancer and photographer," she informed me. There's hope for the arts yet.
 
"There are people like him" said Ann Boozer, a wristband-clad New York native who now lives in Santa Monica. "Icons, I think we call them."
 
I walked up to the table where Baryshnikov was seated signing books containing the culmination of 30 years of work--photographs of the choreography of the late Merce Cunningham.  I swallowed hard and asked, "What inspired you to photograph Merce Cunningham?"  Long pause.  I understood that there was no time to request personalized inscriptions or posed photographs with him, but would he not answer a fan's question?
 
Awaiting some sort of cue, I looked to the woman-behind-the-poster, who was now passing the books along to Baryshnikov. In his slightly lilting accent he simply responded, "He inspired me."
 
Flight from Communist Russia, a career of unmatched length, and a grace that far extends the stage: Baryshnikov inspires me.