I have yet to hear anything good about the remake of Murder on the Orient Express but here is something interesting. Former Royal Ballet Principal Dancer, Sergei Polunin, has a cameo role playing Count Rudolph Andrenyi.
If you do want to go to the cinema, and who doesn’t at this time of year, Sergei has a whole film to himself: Dancer. It is a moving documentary about his childhood in Ukraine, his years with the Royal Ballet School and the Royal Ballet, his surprise resignation and the physical and mental pressures of becoming a super-star so young and so far from home. It even has a Barons Court moment when we see the letter inviting him to audition in London from the Royal Ballet in Talgarth Road.
His family made sacrifices to help him succeed. To pay for him to go to dancing school in Kiev his grandmother went to Greece and his father to Portugal to take menial jobs. This caused the break-up of his parents’ marriage. The dance shots are breathtaking and moving. An especially touching vignette is when he goes back to visit his original dance teacher at her school in the Ukrainian city where he spent his early childhood. He dances for her next generation of children who seem unaware that he is anyone special.
It is frustrating that I was unaware Sergei’s company, Project Polunin, was in London at the ENO at the beginning of December. The FT dance critic Clement Crisp is the most experienced, best informed and best educated in ballet. His review is worth reading here. But if you’d rather see Sergei dance watch this video shot in Hawaii.
Or if you’d like to hear some inappropriate applause …
Cecil Beaton records in his diary a conversation he had with George Balanchine in 1965.
Nureyev came to see me shortly after he fled from Russia , but he wanted to dance “on circuit” and make extra money. He wanted to be the star. He didn’t want to be part of a ballet. He is too selfish and a dancer cannot afford to be selfish. You will soon spot a selfish dancer. Nureyev will end up badly, you’ll see. He’ll be like Pavlova.
Words that could be applied to Polunin too.
Today’s comments spot on especially since news of Peter Martins departure from NYC. Purge continues. PM may indeed be a hard taskmaster …his accusers call it verbal abuse…but as a brisk and energetic dancer director the results of his work were spectacular.