Vladimir Shklyarov, a world-renowned Russian ballet star, has died after falling from the fifth floor of a building on Saturday.
His death was confirmed by the Mariinsky Theater, a venue in the city of St. Petersburg where Shklyarov was the highest-ranking dancer.
“This is a huge loss for the entire Mariinsky Theater team,” it said.
While Russian authorities have launched an investigation into Shklyarov’s death, the “preliminary cause” has been judged an accident, Russian state media outlet RIA Novosti reported.
“He died a natural death. It’s not a crime,” a source in the emergency services told RIA Novosti.
Shklyarov died two days before he was due to undergo complex spinal surgery and had been taking “serious painkillers” for some time, Russian media reported.
Diana Vishneva, a fellow principal dancer at the Mariinsky, said Shklyarov’s death is a “tragedy” for the ballet world.
“You were so loved by your audience. You were the favorite partner of many ballerinas,” she wrote in a tribute on Instagram.
Born in Leningrad — now St. Petersburg — Shklyarov studied at the prestigious Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet and graduated in 2003. He joined the Mariinsky Theater the same year and has served as a principal dancer — the highest-ranking position in the company — since 2011.
In a career spanning more than two decades, Shklyarov starred in productions of “Swan Lake,” “Sleeping Beauty,” “Romeo and Juliet” and “Don Quixote.” He also performed starring roles as a guest artist with companies outside Russia, including London’s Royal Ballet and the American Ballet Theatre in New York.
He received numerous accolades during his career, including the Léonide Massine International Prize in 2008, and in 2020 he was appointed an Honored Artist of Russia.
In the days after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Shklyarov was quoted as speaking out in support of peace.
“I am against the war in Ukraine! I am for the people, for a peaceful sky above our heads!” he was quoted as saying in a Facebook post by Alexei Ratmansky, a Russian-Ukrainian former ballet dancer.
Ratmansky, a former director of Moscow’s Bolshoi Ballet, had been collecting anti-war messages from other figures in the ballet world.
Shklyarov was married to Maria Shirinkina, a fellow dancer at the Mariinsky. The couple had two children, a son and a daughter.