Sergei Polunin dropped by Paris Opera Ballet after homophobic rant

Sergei Polunin dropped by Paris Opera Ballet after homophobic rant

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/01/14/sergei-polunin-dropped-paris-opera-ballet-homophobic-rant/

Sergei Polunin was nicknamed the "bad boy of ballet" after walking out of London's Royal Ballet in 2012 CREDIT: DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS/AFP

Sergei Polunin has showed off his tattoo of Vladimir Putin on his Instagram account CREDIT: INSTAGRAM

The Paris Opera Ballet has withdrawn its invitation for a Ukrainian-born dancer to perform in Swan Lake because he posted “homophobic”, "sexist" and “fattist” comments on social media.

Sergei Polunin, 29, nicknamed the “bad boy of ballet” after walking out of London’s Royal Ballet in 2012, had been due to dance in Paris in February.

Aurélie Dupont, the artistic director of the Paris Opera Ballet, acknowledged that Polunin, reputed to be the greatest dancer of his generation, was a “talented artist”, but she said his “public pronouncements” did not respect the company’s values.

It has cancelled a plan to cast him as the lead in a production of Swan Lake in which Prince Siegried is supposed to be played as a repressed homosexual.

Polunin, who was compared to Rudolf Nureyev early in his career, blasted gay dancers in an Instagram post last month. He urged male ballet dancers to “man up”.

Man (sic) should be a man and woman should be a woman, that’s the reason you’ve got balls,” wrote the dancer.

Referring to gay male dancers, he said: “Females now trying to take on the man role because you don’t f*** them and because you are an embarrassment.”

Polunin, who has in the past struggled with alcohol and drug abuse, according to Dance magazine, said gay men “need a good slap… Man (sic) are wolves, are lions. Man are the leaders of the family.”

He also lashed out at overweight people last week on Instagram, saying: “Let’s slap fat people when you see them. It will help them and encourage them to lose some fat. No respect for laziness!” He later deleted the post.

Polunin took Russian nationality in November and sports a tattoo of Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, on his chest. He has said he was praying for Mr Putin to lead the world “because it would be ultimate win over evil”.

He is best known outside ballet for starring in a video for the Irish singer Hozier’s 2015 hit, ‘Take me to Church’, directed by the artist David LaChapelle.

Ironically, the song, viewed more than 26 million times on YouTube, condemns the Roman Catholic church for its stance against homosexuality.

A leading dancer with the Paris Opera Ballet, Adrien Couvez, had earlier described Polunin an “embarrassment”.

“You are a disgrace,” Couvez posted. “It’s frankly impossible for the Paris Opera to invite someone like this in 2019. Our company promotes values of respect and tolerance! This man has nothing to do with us.”

Polunin’s posts on his Instagram account, followed by more than 170,000 people, also provoked calls online to boycott the Paris Opera Ballet.

Reacting to his remarks about overweight people, the star dancer Ludmila Pagliero posted: “Better not put on a gram otherwise Monsieur Polunin won’t be happy.”

The “enfant terrible”, who started dancing at 3 and moved to London aged only 13, enjoyed a meteoric rise to stardom. He became the Royal Ballet’s youngest dancer, but shocked fans in 2012, when he was just 23, by announcing that he was ending his ballet career.

“I wanted to progress to other things,” he said afterwards. “I wanted to move into cinema.”

He appeared in a 2016 documentary film, Dancer.

He has long had a reputation for eccentric and sometimes inappropriate behaviour, but his latest misogynistic, homophobic tirades and violent language have made him a pariah.

He recently appeared in a video for the luxury fitness brand Equinox, but it seems that ballet’s bad boy has finally become too bad for ballet.

Sergei Polunin

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergei_Polunin

Sergei Vladimirovich Polunin (Ukrainian: Сергій Володи́мирович Полу́нін, Serhiy Volodymyrovych Polunin; Russian: Серге́й Влади́мирович Полу́нин, Sergey Vladimirovich Polunin; born 20 November 1989) is a Russian] ballet dancer, actor and model.

Born in Kherson, Ukrainian SSR, Polunin started out in gymnastics before switching to ballet at the age of eight and attended the Kiev State Choreographic Institute. After graduating, he joined the British Royal Ballet School at the age of 13 in 2003. Polunin has received numerous awards, including the Prix de Lausanne and Youth America Grand Prix in 2006, and in 2007 was named the Young British Dancer of the Year. In 2010, at the age of 20, Polunin became the Royal Ballet's youngest ever principal dancer.

After two years, he quit the ballet company to focus on a freelance career. As a freelance principal dancer, Polunin has been a guest artist at various theaters worldwide such as Royal Ballet, Sadler's Wells Theatre, Bolshoi Theatre, Stanislavski and Nemirovich-Danchenko Moscow Academic Music Theatre, La Scala Theatre, Teatro San Carlo[ and is currently permanent guest artist for the Bayerisches Staatsballet.

Polunin also holds Serbian citizenship.

In November 2018 Polunin posted on his Instagram account voicing support for Russian president Vladimir Putin. In December 2018 Polunin expressed admiration and support for U.S. President Donald Trump on another Instagram pos

Sergei Polunin // Je suis malade

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jw0waxHo9N0

A Love Story" Natalia Osipova & Sergei Polunin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qU-7KLLs5mA

Sergei Polunin, "Take Me to Church" by Hozier, Directed by David LaChapelle