From the lure of a dormer room with an electric plug to continue training in a Russia emerging from the Iron Curtain, to the glitz of a post-show London reception where he learns that a racehorse bearing his “Vadream” nickname has just won, Muntagirov invites us -without artifice - to walk in his shoes. The book’s informal layout with its QR codes and snapshots feels like a private, one-on-one chat, but its cataloguing of the workings of the ballet world and life of an artist at the top of his game, clamped in virtual leg-irons though Covid lockdown, are as meticulous as his stage work. Fans, including 96 000 Instagram followers, to whom Muntagirov is simply “Vadim” will be happy to learn that the man who strides onto world stages like the god Apollo, off-stage remains the kind, unspoiled human-being that they love to love.
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