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Dmitrichenko, Zarutsky, Lipatov Trial


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According to the article, her post--advisor to the artistic director--is being eliminated. It had not existed prior to Filin's directorship. This is a significant development because some dancers have been very critical of her. The piece includes a link to an interview in which Svetlana Lunkina had nothing good to say about her. http://balletalert.invisionzone.com/index.php?/topic/36700-is-svetlana-lunkina-moving-to-toronto/?p=322491 In his testimony at the trial Nikolai Tsiskaridze was also very critical.

Frankly speaking, hand on heart, for two and a half years the Bolshoi Ballet has been run by this madam without ballet training. If she does not like someone, that person is removed from his roles. She is an advisor. It's unclear who this person is. But that's how it is.

http://izvestia.ru/news/561352#ixzz2mKPsJdOy

Added: In her Izvestia interview Joy Womack said that Timergazina was the one responsible for looking after her paperwork, and even the Bolshoi acknowledges that wasn't done as well as it could have been.

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According to the article, her post--advisor to the artistic director--is being eliminated. It had not existed prior to Filin's directorship. This is a significant development because some dancers have been very critical of her. The piece includes a link to an interview in which Svetlana Lunkina had nothing good to say about her. http://balletalert.invisionzone.com/index.php?/topic/36700-is-svetlana-lunkina-moving-to-toronto/?p=322491 In his testimony at the trial Nikolai Tsiskaridze was also very critical.

Frankly speaking, hand on heart, for two and a half years the Bolshoi Ballet has been run by this madam without ballet training. If she does not like someone, that person is removed from his roles. She is an advisor. It's unclear who this person is. But that's how it is.

http://izvestia.ru/news/561352#ixzz2mKPsJdOy

Added: In her Izvestia interview Joy Womack said that Timergazina was the one responsible for looking after her paperwork, and even the Bolshoi acknowledges that wasn't done as well as it could have been.

Interesting. She is also Olga Smirnova's mother in law (I know she only recently got married).

I wonder how Dmitrichenko still has people who openly support him within the Bolshoi... though apparently he did not know of the acid attack itself, he was doing some underhanded things to achieve what he perceived needed to be done. The ends don't justify the means, in my opinion - then again, I don't know him personally. I guess tomorrow we will know what the court decides.

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I think it's entirely possible to feel sympathy for Filin and also believe that Dmitrichenko was not responsible for what happened. Even most of Filin's staunchest supporters who came to refute Tsiskaridze's testimony reportedly had friendly interactions with Dmitrichenko in court.

We can also consider the particular circumstances of the signatories named. Svetlana Lunkina is in exile in Canada. Ryzhkina and Antonicheva are older ballerinas who have largely been sidelined in the repertoire, so they may feel they have relatively little to lose, though Ryzhkina would have to consider her son, who dances in the corps de ballet. Nikulina and Volchkov enjoy the favor of Yuri Grigorovich, which is why she starred in the Bolshoi's last two cinema broadcasts, both Grigorovich ballets. After his Romeo, Volchkov was also supposed to appear on screen as Crassus, but he has not performed since injury forced him to withdraw from performances in London last summer, so casting had to be shuffled. He is the only male principal who dances in all of Grigorovich's ballets and productions. Beyond that, though, Nikulina has not been getting much love from the Bolshoi lately. For example, it has not cast her in Swan Lake for a year and a half, even though it's the ballet the Bolshoi performs more than any other, and she's been dancing the lead since she was 19. She was also not cast for the London tour, even though her name was included in general press releases right until the end. Andrienko and Rodkin were known to be supporters of Tsiskaridze. Rodkin was Tsiskaridze's pupil, and Andrienko spoke out against his dismissal even though Bolshoi dancers were under a press gag order at the time.

I suspect most Bolshoi dancers are just trying to stay out of the crossfire and praying for the day when the turmoil will finally be over.

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Thank you, volcanohunter, for your very accurate analysis.

In the most recent article I read something, which came as a surprise for me - the news about some “Ballet Traditions” fund, which doesn't have a website. An extract from: http://izvestia.ru/news/561760

"From January 1, 2014, the post of Advisor to the Artistic Director of the ballet company will be abolished. According to “Izvestia” newspaper, the Bolshoi’d press officer Katerina Novikova said that Dilyara Timergazina who is holding this post at the moment had been already notified of her dismissal.

According to “Izvestia”, immediate boss of Timergazina the Artistic Director of the ballet company Sergei Filin had been warned in advance of the non-renewal of the (her?) contract with the Bolshoi. His contract will expire in 2016. Also, according to the newspaper’s source, the Artistic Director was offered a one-year leave to make a recovery, which he turned down.

It is known that Dilyara Timergazina is a graduate of one of the best business schools in the USA - a New York University Stern School of Business. In addition to her work at the Bolshoi she also works as the Director General of "The Ballet Traditions" creative fund where Sergei Filin is the President and his wife Maria Prorvich is the Executive Director. Timergazina's son Dmitry is married to a Bolshoi’s leading soloist Olga Smirnova."

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Yes, some star dancers and ADs these days seem to have personal "foundations" on the side, and I'm not at all clear on how these are financed and what relationship they have with the theaters where they work. When Denis Matvienko was dismissed from his post at the National Ballet of Ukraine, the subject of the Denis Matvienko Foundation, whose executive director is his sister, came up, and there was speculation that the theater management was unhappy about its involvement in the production of ballets at the theater. It's all incredibly murky, but I'm guessing these foundations have very complex financial arrangements.

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I can't say I wish Dmitrichenko nine years in a Russian labor camp, but if he brought Zarutsky into the picture to rough up or intimidate Filin, then I do think he bears substantial responsibility for the more extreme violence that happened and should answer for it in some serious fashion. (I also continue to be puzzled as to why, even if one doesn't share that view, one wouldn't be plenty dismayed that he had hired someone to intimidate/harass Filin physically in any way. Lunkina has voiced strong criticism of Filin in at least one interview, but according to that same interview her own family has been a victim of physical threats/intimidation albeit by a different cast of characters. She has reason to know how serious that is.)

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"....if he brought Zarutsky into the picture to rough up or intimidate Filin, then I do think he bears substantial responsibility for the more extreme violence that happened and should answer for it in some serious fashion. (I also continue to be puzzled as to why, even if one doesn't share that view, one wouldn't be plenty dismayed that he had hired someone to intimidate/harass Filin physically in any way."

I totally agree with this. I don't understand how these dancers can continue to support Dmitrichenko and insist on his innocence when he admitted in his final statement to the court that he had asked Zarutsky to beat up Filin. Regardless of whether or not any of his grievances against Filin are justified, in my opinion he lost any moral high ground he might have had when he decided to resort to violence as a way of dealing with those grievances.

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"....if he brought Zarutsky into the picture to rough up or intimidate Filin, then I do think he bears substantial responsibility for the more extreme violence that happened and should answer for it in some serious fashion. (I also continue to be puzzled as to why, even if one doesn't share that view, one wouldn't be plenty dismayed that he had hired someone to intimidate/harass Filin physically in any way."

I totally agree with this. I don't understand how these dancers can continue to support Dmitrichenko and insist on his innocence when he admitted in his final statement to the court that he had asked Zarutsky to beat up Filin. Regardless of whether or not any of his grievances against Filin are justified, in my opinion he lost any moral high ground he might have had when he decided to resort to violence as a way of dealing with those grievances.

This is how I see it too.

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I don't understand how these dancers can continue to support Dmitrichenko and insist on his innocence when he admitted in his final statement to the court that he had asked Zarutsky to beat up Filin. Regardless of whether or not any of his grievances against Filin are justified, in my opinion he lost any moral high ground he might have had when he decided to resort to violence as a way of dealing with those grievances.

Perhaps they can support him because they believe he is the fall guy paid to carry out and also to take the public blame for the entire thing which was orchestrated by someone else... As such, what he says would not be the truth but rather what he was commissioned to say in court.

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Ismene Brown published a report and translation to her blog on Thursday:

http://www.ismeneb.com/Blog/Entries/2014/3/6_Bolshoi_sacks_Dmitrichenko_as_he_loses_appeal.html

High-level:

*Sentences were reduced, as volcanohunter reports above

*Damages from each party have been set

*An appeal, in which the defendants tried to get new and additional testimony, was rejected

*Citing Russian law, Urin announced that Dmitrichenko was fired from the Bolshoi.

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