The brave face of Russian ballet

Sergei Filin can remember every moment of the night he lost his sight, said Tom Parfitt in The Daily Telegraph (U.K.). Eight months ago, the artistic director of Moscow’s Bolshoi ballet was entering his Moscow apartment building when a man stepped out of the shadows and threw acid in his face. “The pain was immense and instant,” says Filin, 42. “It had been a beautiful winter night: silent, white, great drifts of snow falling upon snow. I began scooping up handfuls of it and pressing them into my eyes and cheeks to relieve the agony.” A security guard rushed to his aid. “I told him to call an ambulance and call [my wife] Masha down from our apartment. I had this feeling I was on the verge of leaving life, and I wanted to do it in the arms of my wife.” A disgruntled male dancer has since been charged with ordering the attack, which left Filin virtually blind. “I can make out light and dark; I can’t make out faces.” Despite his horrific injuries, Filin remains devoted to the Bolshoi, and dismisses the idea that its reputation needs restoring. “What restoration, what revival? Our standard already flies on Mount Olympus!”

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