Russian Ballet Dancer Dies From Balcony Fall in St. Petersburg

Russian ballet star Vladimir Shklyarov was found dead on Saturday after falling out of a fifth-floor balcony.

Local reports did not specify the location of his death, nor whether the building was his residence.

St. Petersburg’s famed Mariinsky Theater, where Shklyarov worked as a principal dancer, confirmed his death on social media and called it a “huge loss for the entire Mariinsky Theater team.”

Shklyarov suffered from a back injury and was set to undergo a complex spinal surgery on Monday, the theater’s spokesperson told Russian media Fontanka.

“All this time he was taking serious painkillers,” the spokesperson said. 

Russia’s Investigative Committee ruled out foul play for Shklyarov’s death in a comment to Russian state media RIA Novosti.

“A preliminary investigation into the circumstances of Shklyarov's death has been launched; the preliminary cause of death was an accident,” the committee’s press service said.

Shklyarov voiced his opposition to Moscow’s war in Ukraine, according to a Facebook post by Alexei Ratmansky, a Russian-Ukrainian former ballet dancer.

“I am against the war in Ukraine! I am for the people, for a peaceful sky above our heads!

“[...] My grandfather, Anatoly Filimonovich, graduated from school in Ukraine with a gold medal, and my great-grandmother Sonya lived her entire life in Kyiv! It is impossible to watch everything that is happening today without tears …” Shklyarov was quoted as saying on Feb. 28, 2022, four days after the full-scale invasion broke out.

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Shklyarov was born in Leningrad in 1985. In 2003, he graduated from the Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet and joined the Mariinsky Theatre troupe

In 2011, he was promoted to principal dancer. He participated in the theater’s productions such as “The Sleeping Beauty,” “Swan Lake” and “Don Quixote,” among others. He became an Honored Artist of Russia, a state title bestowed to celebrated artists in Russia, in 2020.