Sergel Polunin — The Crown of the Royal Ballet

After I watched the film “Dancer”, I felt an irresistible impulse to write something about Sergel Polumin. First of all, I don’t understand why the media labeled him as a “bad boy of ballet”. I think he has a very sincere soul. In fact, all my impression about him is that he is a rare genius: so talented, so naturally brilliant.  His dance is such a joy of excitement. It’s a real loss for all of us when he chose to walk away from British Royal Ballet at the height of his success. We knew at that time, he desperately wanted to escape the rigid training and a small elite world. But he should know if it’s not because of that, how could he best master every essence of ballet skill? Although in the end, his delusion gave him freedom he wanted, but his delusion also caused his aspiring career short lived. At the same time, we lost such a gifted ballet star in our time.

Fortunately, he left us with his awe-inspiring dance performance in the film “Dancer”, in which he danced to Hozier’s song “Take Me to Church”. Sergel Polumin said in an interview that he cried 9 hours during filming that dance because that song brought out all of his emotions: struggle, rebellion, finding purpose, finding his identity. He knew it would be his last dance, so he danced with his soul, dance with his freedom.  From the fact that he has chosen that song himself, you can sense what struggle and liberation he wanted to express. What purpose and identity he searched for. In our life, don’t we all are troubled with these feeling sometimes?