RSS

Dance is one of the lesser consumed cultural products, and ballet especially is still seen as a niche market. While it's true that ballet is not for everyone, it hardly tries to be (so much so in fact that often certain types of bodies are actively excluded from it). Ballet and pop culture mixes are rare, and this is no accident, as ballet projects an image of being above popular culture. This is why the other day I was surprised, yet excited when I stumbled upon this video.

Released in February 2015, the video features “Bad Boy” ballet dancer Sergei Polunin teamed up with director David LaChapelle and choreographer Jade Hale-Christofi for a dance set to the hauntingly catchy “Take Me to Church” by Hozier. The video is definitely worth a watch. While some of the imagery is a little too “on the nose” for me, the sheer power of the choreography is replacement enough for any aesthetic quibbles. Just as with a sports 'plays of the week' segment, we are watching an elite athlete exercise the human body to the edge of potential, and it is a powerful experience. On top of this stellar choreography exceptionally executed, there is a bunch of juicy gossip behind this whole video as well.

How did the Ukrainian born Sergei Polunin, earn the moniker “Bad Boy of Ballet”? At the age of 19 he became the youngest ever principle dancer at the Royal Ballet in London, but sent shockwaves through the ballet world by simply walking away two years later, claiming that “the artist in me was dying”. Before leaving the company he had tweeted such thoughts as "Does any body sell heroin??? Need to bring my mood up,” pictures of himself drinking beer first thing in the morning, and apparently he spent his first night as a free man in the tattoo parlour he co-owns, increasing his tattoo count, (tattoos obviously not common among professional ballet dancers).

What causes the death of an artist? According to reports he had recently broken up with his girlfriend, Helen Crawford, who was also a dancer in the same company. Heartbreak, while famous for causing workplace drama, is only one piece of the puzzle. The articles and interviews that came in the wake of Polunin's departure paint a picture of a young man yearning for, well, being a normal young man. 19 years of intense professional training followed by two years of rigorous rehearsals and performances seem to have left Polunin craving a sense of normalcy, or at least, a bit more freedom to just live life.

Ballet is a strictly regimented world with a well established structure that displays none of the flexibility of its dancers. In an interview with the BBC Polunin explained that while he loved performing, he did not enjoy living the gruelling life of a dancer, saying “when you are finally on stage, especially when it is finished, you have so much adrenalin, so much joy in your body, that feeling can keep you in the profession.” The joy of performing, in the end, was not enough to keep Polunin at the Royal Ballet. The Royal Ballet for its part does not seem to be holding a grudge. Tamara Rojo, the Artistic Director of the Royal Ballet says “I really hope that whatever it is that he has to go through he does, and that he can come back to dance because it will be a terrible loss.”

Which begs the question: are we obliged to do something that we are good at, even if it makes us unhappy? While the dance world has not had enough of Polunin, it seems Polunin has had enough of dance. While he has been working on dance collaborations such as this video since leaving the ballet world, he says he does not see himself dancing more than six years into the future, stating that his next ambition is to become an actor. In the meantime, we can enjoy what dance he has done, and look forward to what new creations he will choose to dedicates his talents to in the future.