Anastasia Volochkova, 22-year-old principal dancer, leaves the Kirov Ballet to work in Moscow at the Moscow Theatre Ballet (formerly the Bolshoi Ballet). After a long-term disagreeable relationship with the Kirov administration, specifically with Makharbek Vasiyev, company manager, Volochkova leaves the company under a mutually agreed arrangement.

Ms. Volochkova is scheduled to be in Moscow from May 5, with a performance of Swan Lake on May 13, and then from June 1, with a performance of Raymonda on June 20. She will maintain permanent residence in St. Petersburg.

It was just three-and-a-half years ago, during the Kirov's 1995 London tour, that the company favored her and audiences loved her. She had full support from Oleg Vinogradov, artistic director. However, this may be part of the problem – as went the master, so goes his final creation.

After Vinogradov's departure, with the rapid promotion of new favorites like Lopatkina, Amosova, Vishneva, and Dumchenko there was less and less room at the top. During the 1997 London tour, while others took stage, Volochkova was conspicuously absent. She was pulled from at least one scheduled Giselle, and mid-run she flew off the island to guest-star with St. Petersburg's Maly Theatre touring in Austria.

At the end of the Kirov's 1997 tour, Londoners did catch her in Firebird, Swan Lake, and Don Quixote – but this knocked Yulia Makhalina out of the lineup.

After that Ms. Volochkova was history. For more than four months, beginning in November, 1997, she didn't get onto the Maryinsky stage. In mid-April this year the break was official – she was no longer a Kirov dancer. (The company administration has confirmed this.) Ms. Volochkova explains, "A ballerina without art and performances is nothing."

In a phone conversation, Ms Volochkova expressed no bitterness toward anyone. She was both pragmatic and philosophical when asked what she saw in her future:

"I must find my own way. I must make my own mistakes and find my own examples. I will try to do this in all my life.

"I must have light inside me and kindness around me to be a very good ballet dancer."

Will she ever be back with the Kirov? She says she hopes so one day. And the way things go in Russia, she just might be running the outfit next time around.

Follow these links for more information about Anastasia Volochkova
Photos in the Haegeman Gallery

Sources:
Kirov Ballet
Anastasia Volochkova
The Grapevine

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