Pavel dmitrichenko to dance

Pavel Dmitrichenko longed to dance star roles at the Bolshoi.

But now the lanky, hollow-eyed dancer has won notoriety as the mastermind of a shocking acid attack on the troupe's powerful artistic director, Sergei Filin, for which he will serve a six-year sentence in a penal colony.

Born to parents who performed with renowned Russian dancer Igor Moiseyev's folk dance troupe, Dmitrichenko, 29, studied dance in Moscow and then joined the Bolshoi.

Last year Dmitrichenko, who then had long platinum-blond hair, told Rossiya 24 television that he was keen on football but his mother insisted on him auditioning for ballet school.

"My mum took me along to the ballet school and told me: 'I'll buy you a Mars bar (they had just appeared) if you do what they tell you," he remembered.

"As a result I ended up at ballet school against my will."

He told Kultura channel in 2009 that "they chucked me ou