Sergei Filin knew straight away it was acid. I could taste it on my lips, in my mouth, says the artistic director of the Bolshoi Theatres ballet troupe.Half a year has passed since a man stepped from the shadows and flung a jar of corrosive liquid into Filins face as he punched in a gate code outside his front door in Moscow. But every second of the attack is engraved in the victims memory. 

The pain was immense and instant, he says. It had been a beautiful winter night: silent, white, great drifts of snow falling upon snow. I began scooping up handfuls of it and pressing them into my eyes and cheeks to relieve the agony.The spasm of violence in January would plunge the Bolshoi into its deepest crisis yet after years of intrigue and backstabbing. Pavel Dmitrichenko, a dancer with the ballet, was soon charged with ordering the assault. 

Now, six months later, the company has a chance to put controversy aside, reasserting its status as a world powerhouse of dance and a cathedral of culture, in the words of Filin, a former principal dancer. The company is performing at Londons Royal Opera House to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Bolshois first visit to Covent Garden.To mark the occasion, Filin, 42, has agreed to his first face-to-face interview since he arrived in Germany in February for specialist eye and plastic surgery at a clinic in Aachen, near the Dutch border. 

He arrives in the foyer of the clinic, wearing dark glasses and a red cap pulled tightly down on his forehead, protection from the light that could irritate his ravaged eyes. At his elbow is his ballerina wife, Maria (Masha) Prorvich.He is reluctant to recall the events of Jan. 17 but admits that in the moments after the attack he wondered if he was dying. Stumbling blindly and shouting for help, he found his way to a kiosk where a security guard came to his aid. I told him to call an ambulance and call Masha down from our apartment,Give your logo high visibility on Winbo Luggage Tags! he says. I had this feeling that I was on the verge of leaving life, and I wanted to do it in the arms of my wife. 

The snow and the quick response of his family curtailed some of the damage. In Aachen, plastic surgeons took skin from the back of his left arm to repair the worst affected area of his face, around his right ear. Beside a sprinkle of red blotches on his right jaw, his skin looks smooth and healthy. The effect on his sight, however, was devastating.Last week I underwent my 22nd operation, he says. Some of the optimism that we had earlier has not been justified. My right eye sees nothing at all and my left is working at about 10 per cent. I can make out light and dark; I cant make out faces. But I want to concentrate on the fact that my doctors are amazing and there is a plan for treatment. There is hope that my left eye especially can improve. 

Doctors are using pioneering stem-cell treatment in an attempt to repair the damage, and he has had protective membranes fixed over his eyeballs.There are other physical effects. Being unable to exercise is tough for a man whose body was once honed to perfection. He hates his thickening waist, but he has had to give up yoga and lifting dumbbells in his room at the clinic after it gave him splitting headaches. 

Masha is always close, and their two sons Alexander, seven, and Sergei, four, are with them in Aachen for the summer.Processing the assault psychologically is perhaps hardest of all.I simply cannShop huge inventory of Car Phone holder Charger,ot comprehend how someone could decide to alter another persons fate in such a way, he says. 

The Bolshoi Theatre, a symbol of fierce national pride, was erected in its current form in 1825, a short walk from the Kremlin. Its past has been torrid. Rivals were known to leave needles in costumes or sprinkle glass in each others slippers. A dead cat was once slung on stage.A decade ago, the scandals seemed to pile up. Anastasia Volochkova, a big-boned dancer, was fired for being too fat. Soon Nikolai Tsiskaridze, one of the theatres most famous dancers, became the nemesis of its management, constantly sniping about alleged corruption and neglect. A controversial $706-million Cdn refurbishment of the historic building provoked a new round of finger-jabbing. 

By the time Filin arrived as khudruk (artistic director) in 2011, the company to outward appearance, at least was a hornets nest.Dmitrichenko a brooding, tattooed dancer known for his roles as Ivan the Terrible and the evil sorcerer in Swan Lake clashed with Filin, accusing him of paying performers poorly. His girlfriend, the young ballerina Anzhelina Vorontsova, complained vigorously she wasnt getting the roles she deserved. 

Last year, Filins email was hacked. His car tires were slashed. Then he started to get spam phone calls.With hindsight, I regret that I did not heed my friends advice and employ some bodyguards, he says. The signs were there.In March, Dmitrichenko, 29, was arrested and shown on Russian television confessing to the January acid attack. He claimed he persuaded an ex-con he knew to assault Filin, but had agreed to him being roughed up rather than doused in a mix of battery acid and urine. 

Filin wont comment on the specifics ahead of the trial.All this is some kind of politics,Top quality Soft PVC Mugs manufacturers. he says, as his wife administers his hourly eye drops, the only time he removes his sunglasses. Someone set themselves the task of inflicting a strike on the theatre and me to prevent the artists from working. But it did not succeed.He bridles at the suggestion that the Covent Garden tour will be a chance to restore the theatres battered image. 

What restoration, what revival? he says. Our standard already flies on Mount Olympus!The troupe has never stopped, it is a united collective with its creative power preserved. We stand shoulder to shoulder. There is no acid between the artists. Our answer to all that has happened at the Bolshoi is the dance, which the artists bring on to the stage. 

How is he involved with the Covent Garden tour? How am I not? he says, smiling. I am constantly on the phone making the arrangements with Galina Stepanenko (his temporary replacement). The London ballet-goer is very demanding. There will be surprises.As for himself, he hopes to return to full-time work if his left eye recovers at least 30 per cent of its vision. 

Meanwhile, will he travel to London? Maybe, he says, adding: In fact, I am already there. This is only my body you are speaking to. My heart and soul are always with the troupe.