Sergei Polunin
Coralie (
Netherlands
)
Sergei Polunin dances to “Take Me to Church” – Coralie’s goosebump moment
Sergei Polunin dances to “Take Me to Church”
Ballet dancer Sergei Polunin had had it with ballet. He was under a lot of pressure to be good enough, his whole life was built around dance and he was in a downward spiral. He quit the prestigious Royal Ballet in London and danced his “last dance” a couple of years later in a video to the song “Take Me to Church” by Hozier.
The video was directed by famous photographer and filmmaker David LaChapelle. The choreography was thought out by Jade Hale-Christofi. The video became a huge success on YouTube and made Polunin known to a broader worldwide audience.
The dance to the song “Take Me to Church” was also shown in the documentary “Dancer” 2016 about Sergei Polunin’s life. It is an intimate and tragic behind-the-scenes view of the life of the talented ballet dancer.
The documentary shows that his whole life has revolved around ballet ever since his childhood and the huge talent that came from that, but it is difficult for Polunin to cope with that. “Dancer” is produced by Oscar nominee Gaby Tana and directed by Emmy winner Steven Cantor.
Sergei Polunin
Sergei Polunin is a ballet dancer, actor, and model born in Ukraine, but he also has Serbian and Russian nationality. He has always considered himself a Russian. Sergei first started gymnastics and then transitioned to ballet in Kyiv when he was 8.
When he was 13, he started attending the British Royal Ballet School. It became clear very soon that he was extremely talented at ballet. That was also confirmed by the fact that at 19 he became the youngest head dancer ever at the Royal Ballet and had already won several awards by that time, like the Prix de Lausanne, the Youth America Grand Prix, and Young British Dancer of the Year.
Sergei Poluninis is sometimes called the bad boy of ballet. It was hard for him to cope with everything. His family has sacrificed everything for his ballet career and he had an enormous weight on his shoulders to keep being the best and to use his talent to the full.
It became too much for him, he felt unhappy and after 2 years as the head dancer at the Royal Ballet, he left the ballet company. He wanted to follow his own path and became a freelance head dancer. He was invited as a guest dancer by different ballet companies, like the Royal Ballet, Sadler’s Wells Theatre, Bolshoi Theatre, La Scala Theatre, and more, and is the permanent guest artist for the Bayerisches Staatsballet.
More about the documentary about Sergei Polunin:
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