"Please don't make this story personal." That's the last thing Nikolai Tsiskaridze says before he's whisked away to catch a flight home.
The Tbilisi-born dancer, notorious for his flashy stage presence and his equally flashy head of hair (of which more later), had just finished a brief guest appearance at central London's Coliseum, his first major performance since he was sacked from the Bolshoi in June. And although the hour-long interview, conducted through a translator, is almost entirely focused on the dancer, the story is, as he says, far bigger.
In the theatre, people in dark corners hugged me and said they were on my side, but they were too frightened to say so in public
Even before sulphuric acid was thrown in the face of artistic director Sergei Filin in January, the Bolshoi had been suffering some tumultuous years. There were stories of alleged financial corruption involving the renovation of the theatre building between 2005 and 2011; conspiracies with ticket touts; even rumours of preferential payments to certain dancers.
The brutal attack on Filin was allegedly ordered by a disgruntled dancer, Pavel Dmitrichenko, who was arrested and charged in March, but rumours persist of Tsiskaridze's role in fomenting discontent at the company. He dismissed the renovation as "tacky", and for several years lambasted general director Anatoly Iksanov for his "ignorant" meddling in artistic policy, while making it plain that he himself would be ready to replace him.
The scandal claimed them both: in early July, Iksanov was forced to resign; only weeks earlier, Tsiskaridze was told his contract would not be renewed.
Whatever else it may have done, the affair doesn't seem to have dented the dancer's self-confidence: when asked to describe his relationship with the company he joined in 1992, he says, quite naturally: "The Bolshoi is the best in classical dancing. And for years I have been the face of that company."
And when we discuss his hostility towards a previous director, Alexei Ratmansky, who ran the ballet between 2004 and 2008, it focused mainly on what Tsiskaridze saw as a "lack of respect" to senior ballerinas, and to himself. "The prime minister doesn't tell the queen what to do," he says patiently. "He can only offer polite advice."