Dancer is filled with breathtaking, gravity-defying athleticism as the dancer Sergei Polunin leaps from a poor childhood in Ukraine to principal at the Royal Ballet in London. I learned how society worked, who is loyal to me, who is not. Be a man.”He says he sees this gender flattening in everyday life – and again he disapproves. Though that may be by design, it leaves this portrait feeling frustratingly unfinished.You're almost there! Dancer is filled with breathtaking, gravity-defying athleticism as the dancer Sergei Polunin leaps from a poor childhood in Ukraine to principal at the Royal Ballet in London.An amazing documentary that mixes different styles (news, home videos and interesting self-indulgent stumps). He had been in Britain a year when his mother Skyped him to tell him she and his father had separated. I see other people sleepwalking, and I’m totally awake looking at everybody and have regained the joy.”The next day I climb four steep flights of stairs to arrive breathless at the London attic flat where he is staying. A few days later, he unleashed his chest tattoo on the world. “If two men kiss, I’m like [he makes a noise as if his stomach is churning] because it is not natural to me.” Just when you think you’re getting a grip on Polunin, he blindsides you. “The Russian administration told me to stop polluting their media space.”He admits there is one thing he did say purely for effect. “Would you like something to eat?” He passes me a bag with two fresh croissants inside, and gets straight to the heart of the matter.In the intervening eight years he has rebuilt his career a number of times and, inevitably, pressed that delete button again. As soon as I did this thing about fat people, people were like: ‘Right, this is enough.’ It crossed the line.
“Yes, it’s definitely addictive because it makes you feel.” For years, he says, he had felt nothing.He remembered how it had all started with his ambition to unite the world in love. So now he started letting rip in increasingly eccentric English. I was like, fuck, the energy’s gone. He was devastated. His face is as sculpted as his body, and he has a sweet tattoo on his cheek – a dove and a figure three shaped into a heart. “Something broke. I don’t mind reading about his opinions or how he feels towards other people in the ballet world, this is an important part of him that we, the fans and admirers, never get to hear about. There are few current dancers like the Ukrainian-born bad boy of ballet, Sergei Polunin. He has even got a few dancing gigs that have survived the scandal – playing the title role in the ballet Spartacus in Munich, and shows at the Palladium in London. Use the HTML below.A documentary that follows six young dancers from around the world as they prepare for the Youth America Grand Prix, one of the most prestigious ballet competitions in the world. He was in Qatar to make a short film, thousands of miles away from home. “Yes. ‘This is violence against people!’”He was sacked from the Paris Opera Ballet after homophobic and sexist online rants. A feature documentary on African American ballerina Misty Copeland that examines her prodigious rise, her potentially career ending injury alongside themes of race and body image in the elite ballet world.Documentary on the great American Ballerina Wendy WhelanThis documentary gives insight to the lives of five ballerinas, all at different points in their careers.
He had adored Putin since he was a child, regarding him as a heroic strongman. Nureyev had male energy, Freddie Mercury. And it’s amazing to feel it because you feel a connection to the world.” Is it addictive?
“Not crazy – about £100,000. With Sergei Polunin, Galyna Polunina, Galina Ivanovna, Larysa Lavrikova. He says this dates back to last September when he stood in Red Square in Moscow and declared he wanted to “unite England, Russia and Ukraine”. Directed by Steven Cantor. I never saw people as fat or skinny. Last week, Hozier distanced himself from Polunin, describing his comments as “fucking depressing”.For now, though, he is looking forward to all the rebuilding that lies ahead. “No, I believe in single love and I don’t believe in sex as mechanical. Well, that’s good, I say. With Sergei Polunin, Galyna Polunina, Galina Ivanovna, Larysa Lavrikova.
But what I was doing was pissing people off and putting people against each other.”Which brings us back to today. He looks at me as if I’ve lost the plot. I said: ‘I’m going to find you, and I know who you are, and you’re going to pay for what you’ve done to my country,’ that sort of thing.” He giggles and blushes bright pink at the memory. But two years later at the height of his success he walked away from it all, resolving to give up dance entirely. He is a breathtaking talent who was formerly a principal dancer with the British Royal Ballet and is currently a principal dancer with Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Moscow Academic Music Theatre and the Novosibirsk Opera and Ballet Theatre. At times, Polunin sounds messianic, at others like a lost little boy.Well, that’s good, I say. In 2015, he danced in a video for the Hozier song Take Me to Church. I was very connected to things.”That’s when the backlash started.