Ottawa Citizen

Bolshoi dancer fears for safety

Threats, blackmail keep her in Canada

- COLIN PERKEL

TORONTO • A renowned Russian ballerina with the famed Bolshoi Theatre has decided against returning home from Canada because she fears for her safety, a Russian newspaper reported Tuesday.

In its report, the Izvestia daily cited Svetlana Lunkina as receiving threats and facing blackmail.

“We need to react to these threats,” Lunkina told Izvestia. “These people have no right to interfere in our private lives or my profession­al work.”

She did not elaborate exactly on the nature of the threats.

The Izvestia report comes after an acid attack on the Bolshoi’s chief last week that left his face burned.

The prima ballerina, 33, who has been in Canada for the last six months, registered a dance studio last October in Kleinberg, Ont., just north of Toronto.

Kevin Pugh, artistic director with Dance Teq, said he met Lunkina when she came to the studio to take classes last fall. “When I was in the hospital, she subbed for me once, and people loved her,” Pugh told The Canadian Press. “I just had to wait to see if she had her papers.”

The Bolshoi Theatre has been troubled by deep intrigue and infighting that have led to the departure of several artistic directors over the last few years.

Earlier this month, someone splashed artistic director Sergei Filin with acid.

Lunkina, who has danced with the Bolshoi since 1997, said there is no apparent connection between the threats against her and the acid attack.

 ?? MIKHAIL METZEL /THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP ?? Ballerina Svetlana Lunkina, shown in this 2007 photograph performing with Ruslan Skvortsov in Moscow, has decided against returning to Russia from Canada because she fears for her safety, the Russian newspaper Izvestia reported Tuesday.
MIKHAIL METZEL /THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP Ballerina Svetlana Lunkina, shown in this 2007 photograph performing with Ruslan Skvortsov in Moscow, has decided against returning to Russia from Canada because she fears for her safety, the Russian newspaper Izvestia reported Tuesday.

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