Sergei Filin's undimmed vision for the Bolshoi
It's been more than two years since behind-the-curtain intrigue at Russia's Bolshoi Ballet escalated into violence. In that time the victim has come a long way toward healing. The story now from Tracy Smith:
In Russian "Bolshoi" means big -- and in the world of classical ballet, few are bigger than this.
For as long as the United States has been a country, the Bolshoi has been dancing. Founded in 1776, the Moscow-based company has been a crown jewel of Russia, mesmerizing audiences with tales of passion and betrayal, mostly on stage ...
Until one snowy night two winters ago.
On January 17, 2013, Bolshoi artistic director Sergei Filin was viciously attacked -- doused with acid outside his Moscow home. It left Filin severely burned, and almost completely blind.
And it left the ballet world stunned.
"I was so shocked," said Lynn Garafola, who heads the dance program at Barnard College in New York. "I mean, this is the kind of thing that you hear about with the Mafia in the 1950s, how they liquidated their enemies or something like that. I could not believe that it had happened at the Bolshoi."
What's more, the attack was ordered by one of the Bolshoi's own: A dancer named Pavel Dmitrichenko, angry that he and his ballerina girlfriend didn't get better roles.
- At the Bolshoi, ballet becomes a bloodsport ("CBS Evening News," 01/30/13)
That resentment, Garafola says, isn't surprising.
"It's an enormously competitive environment," she said. "Here you are, a company of over 200 people. There are only a finite number of roles. Everyone wants to be the Swan Queen, and not everyone is going to be the Swan Queen."
For his role in the attack, Dmitrichenko is now serving six years in prison. And after nearly two years of treatment, Sergei Filin is still at the helm of the Bolshoi.
We met Filin this past summer, in the middle of the Bolshoi's two-week tour in New York -- their first visit in nearly a decade.
Filin is still undergoing medical treatment; he's had 30 surgeries so far on his eyes.
Filin is more comfortable speaking through an interpreter. And while he's not so comfortable talking about the attack, he can remember every detail of what happened.
"Speaking about that night, it was far too horrifying for me, for my family, for those who surround me," he said.
"You must have been terrified of losing your eyesight," said Smith.
"What's terrifying about losing my sight was that I have a family, and I have three kids," Filin said. "And to know that you can never be able to see your own kids, it's terrifying."
He still can't see anything out of his right eye, and only 50 percent from his left.
Smith asked, "So, ballet-wise, you can still see what's happening on the stage?"
"When I watch the ballet from the auditorium, I do take off my glasses to see more clearly what's happening on the stage," he said. "These glasses darken my vision a bit."
"I would imagine with your family, they can get pretty close, so you can still see them pretty well?"
"Surely, I see everyone very well, including you," he laughed. "And you look amazingly well!"
Joking aside, Filin looks amazingly well. Aside from the dark glasses, there's little evidence of the attack.
That's partly because of how he reacted, right after he was hit by the acid.
"I put a lot of snow on my face. I put a huge amount of snow on my face, because this snow was relieving my pain," he said. "At the time, I didn't know it would be my salvation. I was less interested in how my face was going to look; I was more worried about my eyes, and because of the snow I was able to save one eye."
"Were there moments where you thought you would not be coming back?"
"Yes, surely yes. I understood this because it was a very tough fight, and in certain moments, I couldn't see anything. But I was not putting my hands down. I didn't get into hysterics. I didn't allow myself to get depressed. I was continuing to fight, continuing to work every day, and that gave me back my strength, and gave me the opportunity to be back with the Bolshoi company on the tour in New York. "
His dedication paid off. The New York tour played to packed houses and rapturous reviews.
Smith asked, "Are you all the way back? And is the Bolshoi all the way back?"
"I came back a year ago already," Filin said. "And from the beginning of the season, I'm continuing to work, and I'm continuing my work.
"That's means I'm back, and everyone is back, but we never really left. We were always at the Bolshoi. Even when I was treated at the hospital, not for a day I did not leave the company without my attention. I was on the phone every day."
"So you were lying in your hospital bed on the phone?"
"In any position, I was continuing to do my job," he laughed.
Filin says he is confident that, in some ways, the attack made the Bolshoi stronger. "Today people are even more united, and today they do everything possible, not with their words but through their actions, through the dance that they live for, to prove that the Bolshoi Ballet is one of the best companies in the world. And I do believe that."
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