Sergei Polunin said he would leave Russia a few days after he lost his job.
Polunin, who is originally from Ukraine and has been known for his pro-Putin view, wrote in an Instagram post starting, “My soul is not in the right place,” written in Russian.
“The time comes and my soul feels like it is not where it should be. My time in Russia has long since expired, as if I have fulfilled my mission here,” he said in the post dated 18th December 2024. These quotes are translated by Google Translate.
The post concludes with saying, “now I still have a long way to go, another unknown path.” It is not clear where he and his family are heading to.
Polunin, who supported the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, was granted Russian citizenship in 2019 and had held the positions of the acting head of a dance academy in Sevastopol in Crimea and the director of the Sevastopol State Opera and Ballet Theatre.
In August, he was replaced by former Bolishoi ballerina Maria Alexandrova as the head of the dance academy.
On 8th December, Polunin in his Telegram post said, “Here is Kherson street where I spent my childhood, where the Polunin generation grew up and my Russian grandfather built a small house with his own hands. I wanted to wish Russia to have stronger negotiators. The worst deal would be better than war. I feel very sorry for the people, life there was not easy anyway. People cannot calmly leave their houses because of drones. I hope for the Humanity of the Russian president and if there is an opportunity to have a normal professional conversation with Trump. It is better to show willpower and good nature and start negotiations ourselves.”
Several days later, the Russian government said his theatre director job would go to singer Ildar Abdrazako.
Polunin also holds Serbian citizenship.
Chronicles of the bad boy of ballet
Polunin is widely described as self-destructive. Aged 20, he became Principal with the Royal Ballet in London in 2007, becoming the youngest male principal dancer in the company’s history. He apparently performed when he was high on cocaine. Three years later, he quit all of sudden. This behaviour gained him the name, the bad boy of ballet.
I personally did not have an opportunity to see Polunin on the stage of The Royal Opera House in Covent Garden. So immediately after his departure was announced, I rushed to see his Narcissius, which was performed as a part of Ivan Putrov’s Men in Motion in Sadler’s Wells. You can see his Narcissius, recorded in 2012, in this YouTube clip.
Polunin dated with Royal Ballet superstar Natalia Osipova for a while. He left for Russia and danced with the Stanislavsky Music Theater in Moscow and the Novosibirsk State Academic Opera and Ballet. His movie clip of Hozier’s Take Me to Church was well talked about. He went on solo, guest-starring with prominent ballet companies internationally. He set up his own project and had a few successful commercial deals. He even flung himself into major films, including Murder on the Orient Express, The White Crow and Red Sparrow with Jennifer Laurence.
Somehow, Polunin cannot do without self-destruction. He supperted Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014. In late 2018, he made homophobic and body shaming rants on his public Instagram account, ended up with getting himself sucked from Paris Opera Ballet’s guest performance deal in January 2019. Around this time, he revealed a tattoo of Putin’s face on his chest. The sucking was followed by other suckings. Apparently he had to pay back a sizeable amont of money for cancelled contracts, including modelling.
Polunin told The Guardian newspaper in March 2019, however, that he was looking forward to rebuilding things. He toured wih Alina Cojucaru and Johan Kobborg and he was invited to Asian countries for some overpriced shows. Then in 2022, he supported the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Later in the year, he got himself two more tattoos of Putin’s head. This lead to cancellation of a show in Italy. He was reprimanded for his pro-war performance in Uzbekistan. He also has the Ukraine trident tatoo.
Polunin was one of the celebrity backers for Putin’s reelection campaign this year.