The acclaimed Russian ballet dancer Vladimir Shklyarov has died aged 39.
Shklyarov died after falling from the fifth floor of a building on Saturday, a spokesperson for the Mariinsky Theatre told the news outlet Fontanka at the weekend.
The spokesperson, Anna Kasatkina, told Russian media that Shklyarov had been taking painkillers for a back injury and had been scheduled to undergo spinal surgery on Monday.
While a federal investigation has been launched to investigate the dancer’s death, “the preliminary cause” has been ruled an accident, the Russian news agency RIA Novosti reported.
Born in St Petersburg in 1985, Shklyarov joined Mariinsky Theatre in 2003 and became its principal dancer – the highest-ranking position in a ballet company – in 2011.
The company called Shklyarov’s death “a huge loss”.
“Our condolences to the artist’s family, loved ones, friends and all the numerous admirers of his work and talent … he forever inscribed his name in the history of world ballet,” it said.
Throughout his 20-year career, Shklyarov starred in productions of Swan Lake, Romeo and Juliet, The Sleeping Beauty, Don Quixote and Christopher Wheeldon’s Alice in Wonderland. He performed all over the world, including with the Metropolitan Opera in New York City and the Royal Opera House in London.
In 2013 he married a fellow Mariinsky Theatre dancer, Maria Shirinkina, with whom he had two children.
Shklyarov condemned Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in a now-deleted Instagram post from March 2022, declaring his opposition to “all kinds of military actions.”
“It is impossible to watch everything that is happening today without tears,” Shklyarov wrote.
In contrast to Olga Smirnova, a star ballerina of the Bolshoi Ballet who fled Russia and moved to Europe, Shklyarov continued performing in Russia and refrained from further commenting on the war.
Russian dancers paid tribute to Shklyarov after the news of his death broke, with Irina Baranovskaya calling his death “a stupid, unbearable accident” on Telegram.
Baranovskaya said Shklyarov “went out onto the balcony to get some air and smoke” and “lost his balance” on the “very narrow balcony”.
A Mariinsky dancer, Diana Vishneva, wrote: “This tragedy brings only tears and sadnesss … This is the tragedy for our theatre, our common grief, feeling of emptiness.”
“You were the favourite partner … My beautiful Romeo, my brave Prince in Cinderella.”
American Ballet Theater, where Shklyarov was a guest performer in 2014 and 2015, remembered him on Instagram as “an extraordinary artist whose grace and passion inspired audiences worldwide”.
“Rest in peace, Vladimir. Your light will continue to shine through the beauty you brought to this world,” the post ended.
