Acclaimed Russian ballet dancer Vladimir Shklyarov has died at the age of 39 after falling from the fifth floor of a building on Saturday (November 16), Mariinsky Theatre spokesperson Anna Kasatkina told the Russian news outlet Fontanka over the weekend (h/t the Guardian).
Kasatkina said Shklyarov was taking painkillers for a back injury and was scheduled to undergo spinal surgery on Monday (November 18) prior to his death. A federal investigation has been launched and “the preliminary cause” has been ruled an accident, the Russian news agency RIA Novosti reported.
Shklyarov, a native of St. Petersburg, joined Mariinsky Theatre in 2003 and was promoted to principal dancer — the company’s highest-ranking position — in 2011, having starred in productions of Swan Lake, Romeo and Juliet, The Sleeping Beauty, Don Quixote and Christopher Wheeldon‘s adaptation of Alice In Wonderland, having also traveled worldwide with performances with the Metropolitan Opera in New York City and the Royal Opera House in London.
“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,” Mariinsky Theatre said in a statement obtained by the Guardian.
Shkylarov, who was married to and shared two children with fellow Mariinsky Theatre dancer, Maria Shirinkina, publicly condemned his home country’s full-scale invasion of neighboring Ukraine in a since-deleted Instagram post shared early in the war, claiming he opposed “all kinds of military actions,” despite continuing to perform in Russia and refraining from further commenting.
“It is impossible to watch everything that is happening today without tears,” Shklyarov wrote at the time.
