Nikolai Tsiskaridze falls silent, afraid of dismissal from the Bolshoi

Bolshoi Theatre's Nikolai Tsiskaridze, fearing dismissal from the company, refuses to communicate with the press without permission from the Bolshoi's spokesman Katerina Novikova.

Tsiskaridze was asked to comment on the fact that the Bolshoi Theatre will not renew the contract with the acting head of the trade union Ruslan Pronin, but Tsiskaridze refused:

If Novikova, our spokesman, will allow me to talk with you, I'll gladly do it. But without her permission, I have no right to speak.

When asked if it this veto only concerns talking about the Bolshoi Theatre, he said that it applied to all his comments to the media, saying that it might be sacked from the company if he didn't toe the line. Tsiskaridze gave a damning television interview a month ago which must have infuriated many of the Bolshoi's administrators when he said that he was ready and willing to take over the top job.

Tsiskaridze has already been reprimanded several times by the Bolshoi Theatre for talking too freely to the media, and finished in court earlier this month.

The relationship between the management of the theatre and the dancer worsened after the attack on the artistic director of the ballet company, Sergei Filin.

Gramilano( Editor )

Graham Spicer is a writer, director and photographer in Milan, blogging (under the name ‘Gramilano') about dance, opera, music and photography for people “who are a bit like me and like some of the things I like”. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy.

His scribblings have appeared in various publications from Woman's Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the ‘Danza in Italia' column for Dancing Times magazine.