I have to say - I've never really been a fan of ballet, but when I started scrubbing frame-by-frame through some reference footage of Baryshinikov I was stunned.
Every single frame stands alone as a brilliant pose.
My job of blocking was definitely made a lot easier by taking my reference from a bona fide genius.
In fact, my biggest concern was that if I rendered it too similar to the performance it wouldn't look "real" because what the dancer achieves is truly spectacular.
