Vladimir Shklyarov, one of the world’s top male ballet dancers, died on Saturday after falling from the fifth floor of an apartment building balcony. An investigation is underway.
The Mariinsky Ballet in St. Petersburg announced the death of 39-year-old Shklyarov, their highest-ranking dancer, on Saturday. Russian media have reported that federal authorities are investigating the theater.
Shklyarov received numerous accolades, including the Léonide Massine International Prize in 2008 and the title of Honored Artist of Russia in 2020. He also served as a guest principal with the Bavarian State Ballet in Munich and The Royal Ballet in London.
He was married to Maria Shklyarov, a fellow company dancer and first soloist at the Mariinsky. The couple had a son and a daughter.
The dance community is mourning the loss of Vladimir Shklyarov.
“He has forever inscribed his name in the history of world ballet,” the Mariinsky said in a statement on Monday.
Irina Bartnovskaya, a former dancer who runs the Telegram channel “The Devil in Ballet Shoes,” said that Shklyarov, on painkillers and resting at home before a planned surgery, stepped onto his narrow balcony for air and a smoke, lost his balance, and fell from the fifth floor.
She called it a “stupid, unbearable accident” and remembered him as someone who “loved life, his family, and adored his children and his audience.”
“It is impossible to comprehenсe how early and unfair you passed away. This is the tragedy for our theatre, our common grief and feeling of emptiness,” she said.
Vladimir Shklyarov graduated from the Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet in 2003 under Vitaly Afanaskov, joined the Mariinsky Ballet the same year, and became a principal dancer in 2011.
His extensive repertoire included leading roles such as James in La Sylphide, Duke Albrecht in Giselle, Solor in La Bayadère, Prince Désiré in The Sleeping Beauty, Prince Siegfried in Swan Lake, the Prince in The Nutcracker, Jean de Brienne in Raymonda, Basilio in Don Quixote, and Ivan the Fool in The Little Humpbacked Horse. He also starred in works such as Paquita Grand Pas Classique, Le Spectre de la Rose, Chopiniana, and Jewels.
