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Acclaimed Russian ballet dancer Vladimir Shklyarov has died aged 39.
A spokesperson for the Mariinsky Theatre told the news outlet Fontanka at the weekend that Shklyarov died after falling from the fifth floor of a building on Saturday.
A federal investigation has been launched to investigate the dancer’s death but the ‘preliminary cause’ has been ruled an accident according to Russian news agency RIA Novosti.
Shklyarov was born in St Petersburg in 1985 and became Mariinsky Theatre’s principle dancer in 2011 after joining eight years earlier.
The company called his death “a huge loss”.
In a statement they said: “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.”
Dancer Irina Baranovskaya called his death a “stupid, unbearable accident”, saying he “went out onto the balcony to get some air and smoke” and “lost his balance” on the “very narrow balcony”.
in 2022 Shklyarov had issued a powerful critique of Putin’s war in Ukraine.
He had posted defiantly: “Friends! I am against the war in Ukraine!
“I am for the people, for a peaceful sky above our heads.
“Politicians should be able to negotiate without shooting and killing civilians, for this they were given a tongue and a head.
“My grandfather, Anatoly Filimonovich, graduated from school in Ukraine with a gold medal, my great-grandmother Sonya lived her whole life in Kyiv.
“It is impossible to watch everything that is happening today without tears…
“I want to dance…I want to love everyone – that is the purpose of my life…
“I do not want wars or borders. Vladimir Shklyarov.”
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