Ballet dancer Sergei Vikharev died in his dentist’s chair

Sergei Vikharev, the former Russian dancer renowned for his reconstruction of ballets and who died last Friday at 55, will be celebrated in the foyer of the Mariinsky Theatre today, before being buried in St Petersburg's Serafimovskoe Cemetery, which is also the resting place of many other Mariinsky dancers including Yuri Soloviev, Feya Balabina and Alla Sizova.

Russian ballet dancer and choreographer Sergei Vikharev dies at 56.
RIP pic.twitter.com/4ZZXiPRQLq

— Vaganova Academy (@VaganovaAcademy) June 2, 2017

Yesterday, however, an astonishing news item appeared all over the Russian media: Vikharev died in his dentist's chair.

Needing to remove implants, he arrived at the private clinic where he was given an intravenous injection of Propofol, an anaesthetic, used to induce relaxation or sleep before surgery. During the operation his heart stopped, staff at the clinic tried to resuscitate him but, after half an hour of trying, the ambulance crew pronounced him dead.

Medical records have been removed and a forensic investigation is underway to see whether a criminal case needs to be opened.

Olesia Novikova's extraordinary entrechat-quatre en pointe during the II act variation in Sergei Vikharev's reconstruction of Raymonda.

Interview with Sergei Vikharev at La Scala in Milan, during the rehearsals for his reconstruction of Raymonda.

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.