By Maliwane Miller, year 12
“I could only destroy to build” said the Ukrainian-born “bad boy of ballet”. Sergei Polunin became the Royal Ballet’s youngest principal dancer in history at age 19, a prodigy! But at 22 – at the height of his success – he abandoned it all, resolving to giving up dance entirely. “Every day I hope I will be injured, then I won’t have the option to dance anymore.” Rumors of depression, addiction & tattoos spread after his scandalous leave.
In January of 2012, Sergei Polunin, left the Ballet World with a scandalous phrase: “I’m tired of receiving orders.” At that moment, everyone in the world of press was talking about Polunin. A British producer, Gabriela Tana, suggested that he become the lead in a documentary about himself, Dancer.
Before leaving the Royal Ballet and covering his body with tattoos, Sergei was solely immersed in ballet. He danced better than anyone, so much that he was transferred directly to third year at the London ballet school, an unimaginable act in ballet education. At the age of 17, he began to dance as a member of the troupe. Students remembered him as being the best and the ex-director of the Royal Ballet states in Dancer: “He was too big for supporting roles like the bronze idol. People did not look at the soloists, but at him.” At just 19, Sergei received an offer to become a lead soloist due to his phenomenal technique, impressive jumps, ideal physic and charisma.
After the premiere of Giselle, he became the star of ballet. People booked tickets to his performances two years in advance, applauds doubled and people waited at the theater’s exit just to see him. Polunin’s technical and expressive brilliance had led dance critics to compare him to Nureyev and Baryshnikov, considered legends in the Ballet World. At 22, without warning, he walked out. In interviews following his leave, he said he was tired of boring rehearsals, the punishing discipline, the physical stress, and was dissatisfied by the minimal financial rewards. He also talked about the tattoo parlor he co-owned in North London. He then provocatively tweeted about parties, drugs, and said he wanted to live a normal life! Even said: “I was sort of sabotaging myself” The British media was shocked by Polunin’s sudden role reversal, and “baptized” him the “bad-boy of ballet”. His “goodbye” dance to Ballet was the ground-breaking solo “Take Me To Church”, choreographed by Jade Hale Christofi, danced by Polunin, based on David LaChapelle’s video, which went viral in 2015.
This past year, Polunin opened up about his scandal: “A footballer, in three weeks, earns what a dancer makes in a year. I wasn’t allowed to work with other dance companies – they were all so competitive with each other and art shouldn’t be. It’s not about who’s better at what; it’s about what you can give people. There was no togetherness. I felt I couldn’t change it, so I quit.” He then revealed: “I wanted to go into film. But the press attention stopped me. I felt lost. I never had any freedom – over my whole life, there had always been people telling me what to do. And when I did finally get that freedom I had no idea what to do with it – that was something I hadn’t been trained for.” After his 2015 awe-inspiring video, watched over 18 million times and which made ballet go viral, he said: “I wanted to quit ballet altogether, but then I worked with David and saw that he chooses to work on what he likes. He gave me freedom – before I was just a ballet dancer. I didn’t want to be one thing; that’s boring. He showed me that actually I can do everything.” Now he is back with a new dance and ballet works at Sadler’s Wells, entitled Project Polunin hoping that the show will help dancers avoid some of the stresses that he faced during his prodigious rise. He wants to make films about dance and to host live performances.
Ballet aside, Polunin has two other great passions. The first is film. Already, he has acted in two movies: the spy thriller Red Sparrow with Jennifer Lawrence and the forthcoming Murder on the Orient Express alongside Judi Dench, Johnny Depp and Michelle Pfeiffer. He also has another movie on the way: The Nutcracker and the Four Realms.
