MOSCOW, July 30. /TASS/. The Bolshoi Theater will not extend the contract with its ballet artistic director Sergey Filin next year, Vladimir Urin, the head of the Moscow-based theater, told TASS on Thursday.
"I have decided not to prolong the contract with Sergey Filin, which expired on March 17, 2016," Urin said praising Filin’s work as the Bolshoi Ballet’s artistic director.
This decision "is linked with the theater’s inner affairs," Urin added.
He also said that next year the position of the Bolshoi Ballet’s artistic director will be renamed to Bolshoi Ballet’s director.
The name of the new ballet director would be known in September, Urin said.
Filin, who took over the Bolshoi Ballet in March 2011, told TASS he had "no reasons to be offended."
"My five-year contract was signed in 2011," Filin said. "I signed it myself and I am prepared to that it will not be extended. This is normal practice in the modern world. I think it’s fair."
In January 2013 Filin was attacked with acid, which left him nearly blind. Three people were later sent to prison for the attack, including the mastermind, a Bolshoi Ballet soloist, Pavel Dimitrichenko.