The dance world is reeling from the news that the artistic director of the Bolshoi, Sergei Filin, was attacked with acid last Thursday night.
He has suffered third degrees burns to his face and hands and he could lose his eyesight.
According to his own account from his hospital bed in Moscow, Filin was returning home to his apartment after a reception when a man approached him and threw acid in his face. “I thought I was going to be shot,” he said.
He is now in a specialist hospital in Belgium, where doctors are working to save his sight.
Filin, 42, joined the Bolshoi as a dancer in 1988 and was appointed artistic director in 2011. Since then he has been the victim of many threats: his tyres have been slashed and his email hacked and personal correspondence posted on line. Only recently he turned down the offer of a bodyguard.
Many believe the attack to have come from within the Bolshoi itself. The company has a long history of overweening egos, internal feuds and passionate rivalries. Alexei Ratmansky, who was artistic director from 2004 to 2008, has said publicly that he resigned because he could no longer deal with the internal politics. Nonetheless, few find it easy to believe that professional jealousy should take such a vicious form.
Filin was due to come to Australia with the Bolshoi Ballet when it tours to Brisbane in May/June. “We had just learned he was would be coming and were really excited,” said presenter Leo Schofield. He is sure, however, that the tour will not be affected by the incident.
“It is already 50 per cent booked, and the company’s reputation precedes it. I don’t think this will be a setback, in fact in my view they will be working harder to prove that the reputation of the company doesn’t rest on one person, that it’s an ensemble. And while they will be shocked they will be working to prove to him what a triumph they can bring to Australia.”
See here
- KAREN VAN ULZEN
See full article on the Bolshoi tour in the April/May issue of ‘Dance Australia’.