Storm in a tutu over sacked 'fat' ballet star

The Bolshoi Theatre’s move to sack one of its leading ballerinas set the Russian media dancing with reports today about her weight, height and ambitions.

Anastasia Volochkova, who danced in Swan Lake and several other famed Bolshoi’s ballets, was fired yesterday following a highly-publicised rift with the management over terms of her contract.

The parties had traded accusations in the media for two weeks, with the Bolshoi management saying that the ballerina was too tall and fat to find her a partner. Volochkova dismissed the allegations as intrigues and lies.

The business newspaper Kommersant today described the controversy as a “soap ballet.”

Volochkova, who looks like a fashion model, angrily protested her firing on national television channels, saying she was treated unfairly.

“A ballerina isn’t measured by her height,” Volochkova said.

Bolshoi’s director general, Anatoly Iksanov, said he fired Volochkova after she had refused to sign a proposed contract. Volochkova said she had refused to sign it because the Bolshoi offered her a four-month contract instead of a regular year-long one and refused to schedule her performances.

As part of the argument, Volochkova wanted to dance in three out of five performances of the Swan Lake during a scheduled Bolshoi’s tour in Paris – a demand Iskanov called unacceptable. “We have come to a dead end,” he said.

Volochkova’s partner, Yevgeny Ivanchenko, resigned during the summer after suffering an injury.

Iskanov said that other dancers had refused to dance with Volochkova.

”I can’t risk the artists’ condition,” Iskanov said.