Bolshoi Ballet Hires New Director

Did anyone want this job? Russia’s famed Bolshoi ballet replaced its head on Tuesday, six months after one of the dancers hired hitmen to throw acid in the face of the director of the theater. Ballet maestro Sergei Filin was left almost totally blind after January’s attack, apparently paid for by one of the top dancers, Pavel Dmitrichenko, who confessed to hiring the hitmen but said he did not expect them to throw acid in Filin’s face. Russian Culture Minister Vladimir Medinsky denied that Anatoly Iksanov, the head of the theater, had been ousted after 13 years in charge.