The newly appointed director of the Bolshoi Ballet, Makhar Vaziev (pictured), took up his position in March this year. He has stepped into the shoes of Sergei Filin, who was attacked and permanently blinded in an acid attack in 2013 by a company dancer.
Vaziev has left his post as artistic director of the ballet of La Scala (where he resided for seven years) to take up the new role. Formally he was director of the Marinsky Ballet in St Petersburg for 13 years.
Filin is staying on at the Bolshoi as the head of the Workshop for Young Choreographers.