Bolshoi on thin ice?

Recent stories surrounding the world famous Bolshoi ballet are testament to the artistic temperament. As they embark on a three week run at Covent Garden, their new head Vladimir Urin seeks to put recent events behind them.

The former artistic director had acid thrown in his face by a masked man. Tensions were said to be surfacing between him and the lead male dancer Nikolai Tsiskaridze. The latter was forced out in June. Urin's predecessor was asked to leave a year before his contract expired due to mishandling of the budget of £860million.

Of course, Russian ballet boasts a proud history of off-stage recrimination. In 1961, the then President Nikita Kruschev was known to have signed a death warrant on Rudolph Nureyev. He had defected to the West earlier that year to join the Royal Ballet where he would go on to strike up a famous partnership with our own Dame Margot Fonteyn. The following year, Nureyev made his film debut in a performance of Les Sylphides. Orchestrated on a previous work by Chopin, this had first been premiered in the theatre des Champs Elysee in that memorable season of 1913 which caused so much controversy. The beautiful nocturne was written by Stravinsky who would shock the music world a few days later with the first public performance of his now legendary "Rite of Spring".

Occasionally, a particular branch of the arts is given a new direction by a new performer and the reaction is not always favourable. This was a case in point. It is said a near riot ensued at its premiere with the audience split in two. Half were in awe of it and half loathed it. Either way, Stravinsky had changed the direction of music for good. Just as the Great War would leave an indelible stamp on the world a year later, that concert is still talked about today even though there are no survivors from that first night. Thus are legends born.

A year earlier, an iconic piece by Debussey was choreographed in to a ballet. The lead role was taken by the legendary Nijinsky and that performance remains the benchmark. Prelude a l'Apres midi d'un faune is arguably the most important piece in the back catalogue of Debussey even though Clare de Lune has become more popular in recent times. The subject matter of ballet is dramatic so it seems inevitable that life imitates art in so doing.