Ballerina Sues Bolshoi
Ballerina Anastasia Volochkova, fired from the Bolshoi Theater amid allegations that she was too heavy for male dancers to lift, filed a lawsuit in a Moscow court seeking back wages and moral damage compensation, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported Wednesday.
The Tverskoi district court scheduled the initial hearing for Monday into Volochkova's suit against the Bolshoi administration.
The Bolshoi Theater fired the 27-year-old dancer last month over a contract dispute. Volochkova's firing came amid allegations that her weight made it difficult for the Bolshoi to find roles for the star ballerina.
Russia's Labor Ministry said that the dancer's firing violated Russian labor laws and called on the Bolshoi to reinstate her. But the ministry acknowledged that the final decision rested with the theater, and the Bolshoi has refused to budge.
"Unfortunately, I have to do it because I am seeking justice and want to assert my rights as well as the rights of other artists," Volochkova was quoted by the ITAR-Tass news agency as saying. "Being on the Bolshoi staff means so much to me, and I believe that my dismissal was illegal."
ITAR-Tass, citing Volochkova's lawyer Lev Zubovsky, said that the ballerina was seeking damages in "merely a symbolic sum."
The Bolshoi Theater said it had no immediate comment.
Volochkova, who weighs about 110 pounds and is 5 feet 6 inches tall, has called talk of her weight "humiliating and absurd for Russian ballet."
The idea that 110 pounds is heavy for a person of that height is not supported by statistics on height and weight charts. The Body Mass Index calculator used by the U.S. National Institutes of Health says that weight and height amounts to a BMI of 17.8. Normal range is defined as 18.5 to 24.9; anything under 18.5 is considered to be underweight. Overweight is 25 or higher.
Volochkova has danced in heavily promoted performances outside the Bolshoi, and many Russians see her more as a show biz figure than as a classical ballerina. She faced criticism from the Russian press when her rift with the Bolshoi management became public two weeks before her dismissal was announced.