On May 18, the premiere of the film “Dancer” took place at the Pobeda cinema. The film was personally presented by the leading actor Sergei Polunin, a living legend of world ballet, who at the age of 27 has collected the most diverse titles - from the youngest premiere of Covent Garden and the scandalous ballet Bad Boy to a promising film actor.


Status attended the premiere of the film and tried to find out whether there is a limit to the human dream and whether our hero has found his freedom.

"Dancer" is a biographical film directed by famous documentary director Steve Cantor. He told the life story of the most scandalous ballet dancer, whose ups and downs of life and work the whole world is watching. Sergei Polunin is a Ukrainian boy from a simple family who achieved rapid success thanks to his talent, and in gossip columns is firmly entrenched in the images of a world ballet rock star, a “bad boy” and a lone genius.

Sergei Polunin is a man of amazing destiny. Other ballet dancers can only dream of the kind of success that he achieved by the age of twenty - having entered the Royal Ballet School at the age of 17, already at 19 Sergei became the youngest premier of the Covent Garden theater in the history of the royal troupe, and in 22 suddenly leaves there, shocking the whole world. Leaves England, gives up a successful career and goes to Russia to find himself.

The film sequentially tells about every step of the young dancer on his way creative career. About his childhood in Ukraine, about gymnastics lessons in the small town of Kherson. About moving to Kyiv, about how the mother believed in her son and knew that a big ballet awaited him. About parting and a new foreign land, a foreign language...

The film is built on contrasts. From amateur home videos we are transported to the world's best scenes, from the first jumps in funny leggings to dizzying pirouettes in luxurious costumes, from tedious and difficult classes at the barre to crowds of fans and bright spotlights.

But behind this whole story lies a deep personal tragedy, and success in the profession leads to a difficult internal drama. Sergei has a wonderful family, two wonderful grandmothers, but in order to continue his studies, he has to part with them at an early age, which ultimately played a negative role, because the support and presence of loved ones has great importance. To provide education in a foreign and expensive country, father, mother and grandmother have to work hard and long hours, and this ultimately leads to a split in the family. There are a lot of personal scenes in the film, conversations with his mother, frank interviews with his father, stories from London friends about what was going on in Sergei’s soul at the time of his break with Covent Garden. It’s as if we are watching from the inside the movement of life into which the director allowed us to look.

Unique physical characteristics, rapid career rise, popularity and recognition - all this lifts Sergei to the top of his dreams. What his mother wanted, what she sacrificed for, came true family relationships and the child's childhood. After all, having achieved fantastic success at an early age, the son practically did not experience the joys of childhood and adolescence. As a result, all this made the artist a prisoner of his own talent. “I didn’t choose ballet. It was my mother's choice. And I always hoped that I would get injured and I wouldn’t have to dance anymore,” this is how Polunin himself comments on this condition.

A series of intense tours, commitment to the theater, loneliness, emptiness - all this leads to internal conflicts and psychological impasse, because of which a classical ballet dancer covers himself with tattoos, leads the life of a rock star, misses rehearsals, and gets into scandalous stories. And who knows how this period of life would have ended, because the world knows many sad life endings in the biographies of confused geniuses. But Sergei found the strength to deceive fate and start living again, the way he wanted.

The magical dance that brought the famous dancer to the pinnacle of fame and professional excellence turns into a harsh and destructive fall. He loses everything, moves to Russia and starts all over again. As Sergei says, at first he was afraid to go to Russia, since it was clear from Western news that the political situation was unstable and international relations were tense. But when he arrived, he realized that everything was fine here and people lived here. beautiful people, but problems and difficulties are everywhere. Sergei successfully participates in a dance project on the “Culture” channel, wins the love of the Russian public, begins working with Igor Zelensky, touring with performances and continues to find his own path.

Every dance is a reflection internal state, it is always in development, always different and cannot be repeated. Perhaps this is why classical ballet constrained Sergei, since what he wanted to express did not fit into the strict framework of academic dance. It was during that turning point in 2015 that he, together with star American photographer David LaChapelle, filmed his dance to the song Take Me To Church by musician Hozier in Hawaii. This dance contains expression, pain, despair, hope, an attempt to reach the sky... This video on the Internet instantly gains popularity and has almost 20 million views, the dancer receives thousands of reviews from different corners planets.

After the Hawaiian video, the hero radically changes his appearance, shaves his head bald, reunites with his family, and for the first time in many years invites his parents and grandmother to his performance.

Each dance is a reflection of the inner state, it is always developing, always different and cannot be repeated. Perhaps this is why classical ballet constrained Sergei, since what he wanted to express did not fit into the strict framework of academic dance.

“I would be lying if I said that I don’t like dancing, it’s the most enjoyable time when you’re at the peak of your form, soaring into the air, jumping - that’s what you are,” says Sergei Polunin.

During this film, we lived with the hero a large and important part of his life. It makes you think about complex things. creative path, about the price of success. After all, we usually have no idea about the artist’s internal processes and states; his talent is enough for us...

Now Sergey is at a new stage of his creative journey, he is trying himself in different styles, genres, in different projects and directions. Got several film roles. And he says that he really enjoys the process of filming, because for him it’s not even work, but just a game: “It’s such a fabulous state, during which you feel like a child. I had to learn everything quickly, but next to me were such legendary artists as Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer, Penelope Cruz... I didn’t even believe that I was there, next to them, but I watched what they did and quickly adapted.” Soon Sergei can be seen in the film “Red Sparrow” by Francis Lawrence and in the film “Murder on the Orient Express” by Kenneth Branagh, based on the story of the same name by Agatha Christie.

And the dancer promised Novosibirsk fans that he would definitely perform on our stage. In 2014, he danced in the ballet “Spartacus”. But after this film, we will go to a performance with Sergei Polunin, as a person who shared with us not only his talent, but also his personal story, thanks to him we have become closer to another human destiny.

“The main thing in this film is something good and kind, this film is both about dance and about family, I realized how important friendship and close people who do a lot for you are. This film is like a reminder of the most important things,” says Sergei about the film as a whole.

“This is such a fabulous state during which you feel like a child. I had to learn everything quickly, but next to me were such legendary artists as Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer, Penelope Cruz... I watched what they did and quickly adapted.”

- Sergey, have you found your freedom?

Yes, I am now returning to the intuitive feeling of life, I am trying to trust life and rely on it, I know that it will arrange everything as it should. It seems to me that trusting life, space and nature is freedom...

Olga Pavlenko

Interview: Elena Nuryaeva

When mentioning the name of the dancer Sergei Polunin people often talk about the inconsistency of his tattoos or his scandalous departure from the Royal Ballet troupe - in general, about everything that usually fits into the important glossy archetype of the enfant terrible. Sergei obediently carries this image, every now and then discouraging the already indignant public: “Well, yes, I like to go to nightclubs, but how else can I unwind after a difficult performance?” And yet Polunin is not described solely by escapades and hooliganism. Such a bright façade, as a rule, hides people who are somewhat lonely, quite purposeful, undoubtedly gifted and experienced, as they say, “ difficult path" It was this path that director Stephen Cantor tried to follow in his film. The film “Dancer” will be released tomorrow, and you can learn a little more about Sergei Polunin now.

I am not afraid of the end of my ballet career, because my life has never been limited to dance. There are a lot of other things that interest me in life. At the moment it's a movie. I want to figure this out, I want to find out if I can be a good actor.

Physically, cinema is much easier than ballet. Ballet is hard, 11-hour daily work. And cinema is a game; on set I felt like a child. I wouldn't call it work. Of course, in cinema there can also be difficulties, but of a different kind.

It was quite a surprise to get these roles (we are talking about the films “Red Sparrow” and “Murder on the Orient Express”, which will be released this fall. - Ed.), especially two at once, with a difference of only a week. And finding myself on the first day of shooting on the same set with Willem Dafoe, Penelope Cruz and Michelle Pfeiffer, I thought: “Do they even realize that I have no idea what I’m doing?” I didn’t have an acting school; for example, I didn’t even know how to hold a fork on camera.

Cinema cannot be taught. You have to find yourself in this environment and adapt. But I can say that I learned from the best: I saw how Judi Dench and Charlotte Rampling work, and this is probably the most important experience that I could get.

Dancers do not grow up, they remain children until they are forty years old. You are always at the machine, always in the hall and practically do not see life. And then, yes, immediately a pension. And there is no help of any kind, no one defends your personal interests either in England or in Russia.

No, of course, I have never seen glass in pointe shoes. It's not that cruel. But the atmosphere in the ballet is unhealthy. Hundreds of people are fighting for the same party. It’s not like in opera or cinema, where you have your own contract for each project. You get the role of Arthur and you work at it, rather than hoping that something will happen to someone and you'll get the chance. I would like to see the same scheme appear in ballet, so that even corps de ballet dancers have a separate contract for each performance. I think this will help relieve the stress.

Ballet is the only art that has not yet switched to a system of agents and managers. To succeed in cinema, at least five people must work only for you. And when you dance in the theater, your fate is completely in the hands of the director. And if for some reason he doesn’t like you, he’s not interested in you - you have to change the city or even the country.

Initially, I was sent to gymnastics. My body was not really built for ballet: I was so small, strong, with short legs. But in an amazing way, the body adapts to what you do. And I don’t remember such a time that my body somehow let me down or limited me in some way.


Serving the body in ballet, especially at first, is quite unconscious. Only with age do you begin to somehow take care of yourself, but when you are young - and ballet is, after all, the profession of the young and very young - the body regenerates and processes everything. Of course, for us this is a tool, and we must be one hundred percent tuned in, feel the slightest change, injury, problem. We are accustomed to listening very carefully to our own feelings: something small inside is not right - and you immediately notice it.

Again, you need to monitor and soberly assess your capabilities. Yes, it’s cruel, but I’ve seen many dancers whose bodies were not adapted to dance at all, and through injury and overcoming they still achieved a lot. It’s just that this professional path is more painful for them than for a person whose hips, for example, are open by nature, or who has soft muscles. But still, I am sure that if there is such a goal, a career can develop, anything can be achieved.

The attitude towards the body in ballet is constantly changing. For example, dancers used to be tighter. At some point, everyone, on the contrary, had to be very thin. But even now in the West there is no such thing that a ballerina must necessarily be thin. A girl can be powerful, and in the troupe you can meet dancers of very different builds. You just need to choose the theater and the project where you can fit a certain role.

The choice of a partner does not depend on the question of her technical perfection. It is much more important for her to be emotionally pleasant to you; it is necessary that there be human contact between you. The energy return from the person I dance with is very important to me. Dance - it is largely about form, about the silhouette of the dancers, but all this can be covered with energy and presentation - and you no longer notice that your knees, for example, stick out or your foot does not stretch. You don’t notice the imperfection of a dance pattern if a special power comes from you, if together you are a ball of energy. It is wrong to always rely on perfect execution, on a correctly placed foot.

To be honest, I have a strange attitude towards ballet and it’s not that I like watching it. For example, I don’t have any particular favorite dancers whose performances I would re-watch. Perhaps Natalya Osipova has an interesting technique and presentation, it’s very interesting to watch her. Svetlana Zakharova has absolutely perfect proportions, it’s impressive. Different dancers have their own advantages: it happens that some use acting, while others use their eyes.

Constant restrictions regarding my own body in my life began, it seems, at the age of four, from the moment I started doing gymnastics. At a minimum, this is training for six hours a day. Of course, we were allowed everything, but in post-Soviet countries, gymnastics school is built on perseverance. Yes, maybe at four and five years old it was still somehow fun, but school started at six, and classes began in the morning, and from twelve until the end of the day there were endless training sessions.

As a child, they once tried to deceive me, take away a coin, and suggested that they make a wish and throw it down the stairs. Since then I've been tossing coins my whole life. Once, for example, I wished to become the best dancer in the world.

Photos: Anna Shmitko, Rick Guest

He is called the main hooligan of the ballet world and a dance prodigy. His name is put on a par with Nuriev and Baryshnikov. He appears in commercials and video clips and dreams of film roles. Ambitious and incredibly talented, "Enfant Terrible" of modern ballet Sergei Polunin By the age of 25, he managed to become the youngest principal of the London Royal Ballet, quit Covent Garden, return to Moscow, win the Bolshoi Ballet project on the Kultura TV channel and earn a scandalous reputation as a “bad guy.”


Sergei Polunin was born in Kherson, studied at a choreographic school in Kyiv, and from the age of 13 studied at a ballet school in London. At 19, he became the youngest Covent Garden premier in the history of the royal troupe. After three years of a dizzying career in England, he suddenly decided to give up everything and left the stage right during a rehearsal: “As I said Steve Jobs, if you wake up four days in a row thinking you don’t want to go to work, don’t go. While you are young, you need to try new things. Having become prime minister in London, you realize that this is not what you wanted at all.”


His best friend in London was a black American who had been in prison three times for serious crimes. Together with him, Polunin opened a tattoo parlor on the outskirts of the city. “When shop windows were smashed in London a couple of years ago, I knew about twenty of those who were then wanted by the police. I'm concerned about the line between legal and illegal. I myself will never steal, but it’s interesting to be around such people,” admits Polunin.


The dancer's body is covered with numerous tattoos. On his chest are scars from wounds he inflicted on himself with a razor. At the same time, his only regret is that the scars are “fake” - they were not received in battle.


It was often written about him that he “leads a chaotic lifestyle.” Polunin does not hide the fact that after a performance he usually spends time in nightclubs, because the adrenaline rush on stage then prevents him from falling asleep. At one time he experimented with drugs. The dancer once admitted that he had taken cocaine before a performance in Covent Garden.


Sergei Polunin has been pursuing his goal since childhood, exhausting himself with endless classes and rehearsals. Success in ballet is never easy - this is evidenced by


Sergei Vladimirovich Polunin (born November 20, 1989, Kherson, Ukraine) - ballet dancer, premier of the Musical Theater named after. Stanislavsky - Nemirovich-Danchenko (since 2012). From 2007 to January 2012 - premier of the Royal Ballet in London, in the 2012-2013 season - guest soloist. Also, since 2012, he has been a permanent guest soloist of the Novosibirsk Opera and Ballet Theater.

He is compared to Rudolf Nureyev, it is on him that classical Russian ballet places great hopes, and leading glossy publications continually invite him to shoot in fashion photo shoots... The new ballet star, 25-year-old Sergei Polunin.

As is usually the case among ballet dancers, Sergei Polunin began studying ballet from early childhood. While other kids played and slept in kindergarten, 4-year-old Seryozha attended classes at a sports school - his parents sent him to gymnastics. However, after a couple of years, it became clear that nature had rewarded the young talent with extraordinary plasticity and impeccable hearing, and at the age of 8, Polunin moved from the sports school to the choreographic school.

Sergei’s early childhood took place in the Ukrainian city of Kherson, however, when he was 10 years old, his parents decided that their son needed to go to the capital to develop a future career. Polunin went to Kyiv with his mother, while his father continued to work in hometown to send his wife and son money to survive. Receptive and talented Sergei developed rapidly, his biography before the age of 15 is already a decent career path!

At the age of 13, Sergei had already left Kyiv and set off to conquer London - this opportunity was provided to him by the Rudolf Nureyev Foundation, whose experts unmistakably singled out the young talent from the crowd of equally young and capable dancers dreaming of fame and the Bolshoi Theater.

Due to the fact that Polunin’s entire childhood was devoted to ballet, and this, as we know, is the hardest work, he did not grow up as a very sociable boy. Sergei himself says that it is his isolation that allows him to best convey the feelings of romantic and lonely characters on stage. This is also facilitated by the extraordinary appearance of our hero.

His career at one of the most prestigious theaters in the world, London's Covent Garden, reached its peak when Polunin was only 19 years old - he became the youngest premier in the history of the famous theater. But it was at this moment that Sergei realized that he had not achieved anything yet...

From West to East

“You know what they say: a Russian can leave Russia, but Russia will never leave a Russian. There is something here that the Russian people need,” Sergei Polunin told Vogue magazine, for which he also starred in a fashion photo shoot, as his great predecessor, Rudolf Nureyev, once did.


"Bad Guy" of the Russian ballet Sergei Polunin

In London, Polunin really got bored... Yes, he achieved that he became the main dancer of Covent Garden, but he wanted even greater fame. And yet, no matter how prestigious it is to perform in England, the main dream of any ballet dancer remains the cherished Grand Theatre, with its greatness, high-profile premieres and behind-the-scenes intrigues.

“In Russia, the opinions of people without status are not taken into account, but in London their opinion is valued, the whole system is built on the fact that they are a team, there are no individuals,” says Sergei Polunin about the difference in approaches. — From a human perspective, this is good, but in the end it harms art. A talented artist is often kept on a general level and is not allowed to open up.” In a word, Sergei believed that it was in Russia that his talent would be fully revealed. The dancer joined the troupe of the Musical Theater named after. K. S. Stanislavsky and Vl. I. Nemirovich-Danchenko, of course, as prime minister. And now Polunin is closer than ever to his dream - next season he will begin joint projects with the Mariinsky and Bolshoi theaters.


Ballet "Mayerling" (Sergei Polunin)

It’s worth rushing to buy a ticket to the ballet with Sergei’s participation - the young man is now in his prime, but, by his own admission, he plans to end his career quite early: “For some reason, at the age of 18, I thought that 26 was a good age, to leave. Ballet is traumatic. Until the age of 32, it’s fun and good, the body recovers, although after 28 you have to increase the load to keep yourself in good shape. And in adulthood it’s generally difficult.”

"Sorry, little tiger"

The personal life of Sergei Polunin is closely connected with ballet - it is probably impossible otherwise, because every premier literally lives in the theater, completely devoting himself to his favorite work. But this is not the only reason why representatives of this art try to stick together... When Sergei lived in London, he dated ballerina from the Royal Ballet Helen Crawford, but the time came to leave for Russia, and he decided to break up with the girl. The dancer himself says that he is attracted exclusively to ballerinas: “You get used to the ballet standard. And all the other women seem strange - there are not enough muscles here and there.”


Sergei Polunin and Kristina Shapran - improvisation

Now Polunin lives in a small apartment in the center of Moscow, next to the theater; it is unknown whether he is alone or not. He does not like to talk about his personal life, and yet he does not hide the fact that things are not very good with this. In an interview with Mickey Rourke for Interview magazine, Sergei noted, not without irony: “I don’t have a very good reputation, so it’s difficult with girls.”


An interesting fact: the romantic Sergei dedicated a tattoo to one of his lovers: “On my back there is the inscription “Sorry, tiger cub.” I was dumped by a girl whom I called a tiger cub. So I got a tattoo to get her back.” Polunin does not specify what he was guilty of before his former passion, but, apparently, he was to blame after all - that’s why his reputation is “not very good.”


The Sleeping Beauty2011


Sergei Polunin meeting 12/28/2014


In your house. Sergei Polunin.


Sati. A fun classic with Sergei Polunin and Radu Poklitaru

A short excursion into the biography of my favorite ballet dancer Sergei Polunin, in anticipation of his performance with Svetlana Zakharova at the National Opera of Ukraine.

I learned about Sergei after watching a television project from the TV channel “Culture” - “Bolshoi Ballet”. From the very beginning, this dancer impressed me with his phenomenal technique and extraordinary charisma. He performed it perfectly classical productions, and modern choreography. Moreover, in modern choreography it looked wonderful, and it surprised me, because usually classical dancers have a hard time with modern, and then they perform it crookedly. It was after this that I began to wonder who Sergei Polunin was.

Sergei was born in 1989, in the city of Kherson. At the age of 4, he was sent to a sports school, where he did gymnastics. According to Sergei, the skills he acquired at this school helped him a lot in classics lessons, especially in jumping. At the age of 8, he left the sports school due to the fact that he was absent from classes for 4 months due to illness, and during this time other children overtook him in terms of results. Next, Sergei studied choreography and improvisation skills for some time at the Kherson Choreographic Studio, after which he successfully entered the Kiev Choreographic School, where his teachers were E. B. Kostyukov, T. M. Martynenko (taught pair classes) and N.D. Pryadchenko.

After 4 years of studying at the school, a video recording of Polunin’s performance was sent to London, and as a result, with the support of the Rudolf Nureyev Foundation, he left for London to study at the Royal Ballet School. Upon completion of his studies, at the age of 17, he began working at the Royal Ballet of London and became the youngest premier in its history. At that time he was only 19 years old. In one of the interviews, Sergei admitted that he wanted to achieve this title a year earlier, but he was a little upset =)

Polunin did not enjoy the privileges of the prime minister for long; at some point he was overcome by a feeling of emptiness, because the set goal had been achieved, but another had not yet formed in his head. In addition, the London Theater tried not to allow Sergei to leave the country, and in fact he was constantly in one place, which greatly infringed on the freedom-loving character of the dancer. During this period, Polunin and his colleague opened a tattoo parlor in London, and he decorated his body with various tattoos. This atypical behavior for a ballet dancer was discussed for a long time by both critics and the press.

At the age of 22, Sergei decides to leave London and goes to Russia, where in the summer of 2012, at the invitation of a ballet dancer, choreographer and artistic director ballet troupes two Russian theaters Igor Zelensky becomes prime minister musical theater them. Stanislavsky - Nemirovich-Danchenko (Moscow). As far as I know, Igor Zelensky agreed not to enter into a permanent work contract with Sergei, so as not to infringe on his freedom. Upon arrival in Moscow, Sergei Polunin takes part in the Bolshoi Ballet show, after which he becomes a favorite of the public both in Russia and in neighboring countries.

As Sergei himself admitted, he hates rehearsals; for him it is monotonous and boring hard labor. His greatest delight is the stage and the live audience. And no wonder, because for an artist this is the main reward. Now Sergei is 23 years old, and he already has considerable experience and many awards behind him.

On November 17, on the stage of the National Opera of Ukraine, Sergei will dance in the Ballet “Giselle”, together with Svetlana Zakharova. Ticket prices are off the charts, but if you have the opportunity, be sure to go see this ballet genius in person.