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Project Polunin at Sadler's Wells


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All the criticism is preceded and followed by real appreciation of his huge talent as a dancer and how it may best be used. I hope that's what he will focus on.

Enough of all this focus on Polunin's "huge talent". Frankly I am far more concerned for Osipova. She is intelligent, immensely talented and well-grounded but she is also very loyal to Polunin. He is entirely self-regarding in his ambitions and actions with no regard for others and it is sad to see her wasting her strength and talent legitimising this "Project Polunin" rubbish in his support. She is one of the most exciting dancers in our firmament and in my view has the potential to mature into one of the truly, truly  greats. The choices she makes over the next few months will be crucial. I know there are those on this forum who will disagree but to me, she is the one with the "huge talent". Polunin has wasted his and as far as one can make sense of his utterances his eyes are turned elsewhere. Good luck to him. Our concern and our support should be focussed on her!

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Enough of all this focus on Polunin's "huge talent". Frankly I am far more concerned for Osipova. She is intelligent, immensely talented and well-grounded but she is also very loyal to Polunin. He is entirely self-regarding in his ambitions and actions with no regard for others and it is sad to see her wasting her strength and talent legitimising this "Project Polunin" rubbish in his support. She is one of the most exciting dancers in our firmament and in my view has the potential to mature into one of the truly, truly  greats. The choices she makes over the next few months will be crucial. I know there are those on this forum who will disagree but to me, she is the one with the "huge talent". Polunin has wasted his and as far as one can make sense of his utterances his eyes are turned elsewhere. Good luck to him. Our concern and our support should be focussed on her!

 

I would indeed be very concerned about her if she was only participating in this sort of project; but it's a tiny percentage of her working life and given her intelligence and commitment I hope will remain so.

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I too am reading all these comments with a heavy heart. Have just come back from seeing the Dancer film, which I enjoyed very much but just made me really sad. I really hoped this SW week was going to be a turning point - and I am beginning to slightly dread my forthcoming visit on Saturday. Desperately trying to retain an open mind!!

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I'm 'enjoying' this thread with a heavy heart.. The waste of Polunin's talent is distressing. I wonder what he is feeling about it all?

I imagine he will be taking the well worn path of telling himself that the audience does't understand him.

 

Sigh.

 

I, too, am worried about Osipova.  Time to cut loose now, Natalia.

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I imagine he will be taking the well worn path of telling himself that the audience does't understand him.

 

 

 

Yes, there is that strong possibility too! Though in fact there was a very strange (to me) amount of applause and cheering last night (and it wasn't the first night after all), so perhaps there is an audience that understands him and he will simply dismiss the critics/regulars etc as unimportant.

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I suspect the cheers were for him as a person young people identify with, following the documentary,  and also for his beauty and talent

-rather than for the actual pieces.

Beauty doesn't last though, alas, alack.

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Yes, there is that strong possibility too! Though in fact there was a very strange (to me) amount of applause and cheering last night (and it wasn't the first night after all), so perhaps there is an audience that understands him and he will simply dismiss the critics/regulars etc as unimportant.

Yes, there was but how many productions of this ilk can even Polunin groupies continue to turn out for?

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Enough of all this focus on Polunin's "huge talent". Frankly I am far more concerned for Osipova. She is intelligent, immensely talented and well-grounded but she is also very loyal to Polunin. He is entirely self-regarding in his ambitions and actions with no regard for others and it is sad to see her wasting her strength and talent legitimising this "Project Polunin" rubbish in his support. She is one of the most exciting dancers in our firmament and in my view has the potential to mature into one of the truly, truly  greats. The choices she makes over the next few months will be crucial. I know there are those on this forum who will disagree but to me, she is the one with the "huge talent". Polunin has wasted his and as far as one can make sense of his utterances his eyes are turned elsewhere. Good luck to him. Our concern and our support should be focussed on her!

 

You know Polunin, do you? You are privy to his thoughts and feelings, conversations and interactions with others, his relationship (whatever its current status) with Osipova? Loyalty is something chiefly verifiable in adversity rather than success. If Osipova is loyal, it may be to her credit. But perhaps she sees something in Polunin that you don't. Perhaps knows something that you don't.

 

As for concern and support, some of us are capable of feelings of support, sympathy and encouragement for more than one person at a time. We can even wish people well when they disappoint us; sometimes especially then. Surely it would be possible to express concern for Osipova without indulging in a character assassination of Polunin.  

 

For the record, my first live experience of Polunin will be this Saturday and I am not a "fan". Perhaps I won't enjoy the show but I hope I won't deny him basic human respect on that account. He seems a troubled soul whose great talent seems not to have been accompanied by all the desirable inner resources: perhaps one of the Sleeping Beauty fairies was missing at his christening.  

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The insults are certainly coming thick and fast.

billboyd do you think that there is some knife twisting going on with the critics ? It did cross my mind as I read the critics' reviews that perhaps there may be an element of 'getting back' at Polunin for ditching and dissing the RB. I have not seen the show, but really hope, as I'm sure others do that it will garner more positive reviews.  

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billboyd do you think that there is some knife twisting going on with the critics ? It did cross my mind as I read the critics' reviews that perhaps there may be an element of 'getting back' at Polunin for ditching and dissing the RB. I have not seen the show, but really hope, as I'm sure others do that it will garner more positive reviews.  

I honestly don't think you will come to that conclusion when you see the show.  And, as for insults, I haven't seen any.  What I've seen is an honest assessment of his show, coupled with sorrow to see his talents so squandered.  This is surely all that any dancer can hope for - honesty?  

 

Most concerning are comments from people who have so much more than my surface knowlege that his technique is not what it once was.  But surely this is hardly surprising?  Dancers are athletes who need continual practise and renewal in their art which is why the life of a dancer is one of rigour and dedication.  I wonder where Polunin is getting the daily practise, the physiotherapy, the personal training that are absolute necessities for a top line dancer.

 

One further comment which is not an insult but will doubtless be construed as one.  It struck me as I watched the performance in disbelief that the only subject matter Sergei Polunin finds fascinating is Sergei Polunin.  We have a film - about his life.  We get a new production - entitled Project Polunin for no particular reason that I could fathom and the endless interviews are always about him, very rarely about ballets.  That's his perogative but somebody needs to explain that it can't last forever.

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We get a new production - entitled Project Polunin 

 

 

I stopped using my binoculars when it became apparent that there was an alignment mismatch between his sparkly thong and the underlying support which created an alarming lump to one side.  The evening could well have been called 'Hanging Out with Sergei'.

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I stopped using my binoculars when it became apparent that there was an alignment mismatch between his sparkly thong and the underlying support which created an alarming lump to one side.  The evening could well have been called 'Hanging Out with Sergei'.

Lol, Quintus.  One wonders what he saw when he looked in the mirror - people around me were tittering

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I stopped using my binoculars when it became apparent that there was an alignment mismatch between his sparkly thong and the underlying support which created an alarming lump to one side.  The evening could well have been called 'Hanging Out with Sergei'.

I suspect groin guard and glitter envy.... :/

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I honestly don't think you will come to that conclusion when you see the show.  And, as for insults, I haven't seen any.  What I've seen is an honest assessment of his show, coupled with sorrow to see his talents so squandered.  This is surely all that any dancer can hope for - honesty?  

 

Most concerning are comments from people who have so much more than my surface knowlege that his technique is not what it once was.  But surely this is hardly surprising?  Dancers are athletes who need continual practise and renewal in their art which is why the life of a dancer is one of rigour and dedication.  I wonder where Polunin is getting the daily practise, the physiotherapy, the personal training that are absolute necessities for a top line dancer.

 

One further comment which is not an insult but will doubtless be construed as one.  It struck me as I watched the performance in disbelief that the only subject matter Sergei Polunin finds fascinating is Sergei Polunin.  We have a film - about his life.  We get a new production - entitled Project Polunin for no particular reason that I could fathom and the endless interviews are always about him, very rarely about ballets.  That's his perogative but somebody needs to explain that it can't last forever.

penelopesimpson, I agree with your comment and I haven't seen any insults. What I have read regards Polunin's technique, choice of rep, choreography etc. And I've read it all with my eyes half covered because I'd love for this show to be a success. As I mentioned it just did cross my mind (and not based on my having seen the performance) that perhaps the critics were 'out to get him'. Wouldn't we all love for there to be a Happy Ending ?! x

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Yes, there is that strong possibility too! Though in fact there was a very strange (to me) amount of applause and cheering last night (and it wasn't the first night after all), so perhaps there is an audience that understands him and he will simply dismiss the critics/regulars etc as unimportant.

 

Or perhaps it was mainly people who continued using their binoculars after Quintus stopped using his  :)

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You know Polunin, do you? You are privy to his thoughts and feelings, conversations and interactions with others, his relationship (whatever its current status) with Osipova? Loyalty is something chiefly verifiable in adversity rather than success. If Osipova is loyal, it may be to her credit. But perhaps she sees something in Polunin that you don't. Perhaps knows something that you don't.

 

As for concern and support, some of us are capable of feelings of support, sympathy and encouragement for more than one person at a time. We can even wish people well when they disappoint us; sometimes especially then. Surely it would be possible to express concern for Osipova without indulging in a character assassination of Polunin.

 

For the record, my first live experience of Polunin will be this Saturday and I am not a "fan". Perhaps I won't enjoy the show but I hope I won't deny him basic human respect on that account. He seems a troubled soul whose great talent seems not to have been accompanied by all the desirable inner resources: perhaps one of the Sleeping Beauty fairies was missing at his christening.

Indeed, however from the magazine article photos he is taking treatment to remove his Natascha tattoo on his hand.

 

His loyalty has an end point it seems.

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Well, I won't be seeing this but, trying to be fair to Polunin, this programme probably looked good on paper. He started with a respected bravura Soviet piece to showcase his technique and followed it with a contemporary work which had been well received in Russia and which he thought would be a good contrast. Unfortunately, neither of these pieces particularly appealed to British sensibilities. Then there followed a new work, to a newly commissioned score, which in anyone's hands is a huge risk. There are plenty off companies with huge resources at their disposal which have produced poor works.

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Well, I won't be seeing this but, trying to be fair to Polunin, this programme probably looked good on paper. He started with a respected bravura Soviet piece to showcase his technique and followed it with a contemporary work which had been well received in Russia and which he thought would be a good contrast. Unfortunately, neither of these pieces particularly appealed to British sensibilities. Then there followed a new work, to a newly commissioned score, which in anyone's hands is a huge risk. There are plenty off companies with huge resources at their disposal which have produced poor works.

 

That's true, aileen. In fact because it's a long time since I've seen Soviet choreography I almost didn't mind the first piece - at least it was of some historical interest. But it was a very odd choice for a (still) young man who claims to be looking to the future etc. And if all else had been well I could even possibly have tolerated the second work as a piece of incomprehensible (to me) whimsy. The problem for me really was that I found the last/new work was so dire that it was no longer possible to try to make allowances for the first two. If someone's artistic judgement is so askew that they could produce Narcissus and Echo, then the first two works were clearly not just minor miscalculations but part of a seriously out of kilter whole.

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I seem to remember that Polunin performed another Narcissus themed piece as part of Putrov's Men in Motion programme shortly after he had left the RB. He was mesmerising in that.

 

Could that be the “Narcissus” (or Narcisse) choreographed by Goleizovsky for the young Vladimir Vasiliev? There's a youtube video of Polunin dancing that in Russia. The more I've read about the new "Narcissus and Echo", the more I'm sorry that we aren't seeing the older version, especially as Vasiliev is involved in "the Project". What a missed opportunity to see a "handing on". 

 

Picking up on bridiem's thoughts on your thoughts, it would be interesting to know more about how the final artistic decisions were reached and who's responsible.

 

I'm curious (in a slightly anxious way) about this show and am trying not to prejudge.  The Telegraph review likened Narcissus and Echo to “Carry on Ovid” which brought a fleeting image of a spangly Kenneth Williams spoofing a balletic sequence with a scantily clad Barbara Windsor. I feel this may have put me in the right frame of mind for the Saturday matinee.

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Yes- I had forgotten that. I was there- remember it well as I walked up the stairs behind Monica Mason.

Vasiliev's Narcisse.

A bit of a theme emerging...... He was really really marvellous in it- hard to believe it was 5 years ago.

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I'm 'enjoying' this thread with a heavy heart.. The waste of Polunin's talent is distressing. I wonder what he is feeling about it all?

 

 

I shall be very straightforward: it was a pretty awful evening to say the least...

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Yes, I think that's the one, Johnpw. The photograph of Polunin dancing it (the one with an orangey background) is often still used in articles about him. On the same programme was Maliphant's Afterlight, a work inspired by Nijinsky, performed by Daniel Proietto.

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I meant to say earlier that I like the concept of linking the legend of Narcissus with concerns about the narcissism of social media.

 

From reading the programme, this is what Polunin was trying to convey, that if you are in love with your own image (and isn't this what is happening today with all the "selfies" people take of themselves, you will lose all human contact with everyone else.

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From reading the programme, this is what Polunin was trying to convey, that if you are in love with your own image (and isn't this what is happening today with all the "selfies" people take of themselves, you will lose all human contact with everyone else.

It's a story he should know well, replacing 'own image' with 'own view of ballet' and and 'losing contact with the dance world'

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billboyd do you think that there is some knife twisting going on with the critics ? It did cross my mind as I read the critics' reviews that perhaps there may be an element of 'getting back' at Polunin for ditching and dissing the RB. I have not seen the show, but really hope, as I'm sure others do that it will garner more positive reviews.  

 

Oh, absolutely, there is more than "an element of 'getting back'". How did a boy "from a poor country" (something he had heard a lot while studying at the Royal Ballet School and afterwards) dare to dis that sacred cow of an institution that some of us forget has been in existence only since the end of the World War II.

 

How can I, for example, trust Debra Crane's damning condemnation ("Banal, ludicrous and bombastic", one might think she is one of the guardians of "good taste") when I vividly recall her enthusiastic endorsement of tasteless banality of Arthur Pita's "provocations" that I am unable to call "choreography"?

 

This is not to say that I do not share with some critics (Clement Crisp, Mark Monahan) sadness and frustration that an "electrifying, once-in-a-generation dancer" is wasting his unique talent, except that I hold "guilty" for this state of affairs as much the ballet establishment itself that prefers obedient mediocrity.

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Oh, absolutely, there is more than "an element of 'getting back'". How did a boy "from a poor country" (something he had heard a lot while studying at the Royal Ballet School and afterwards) dare to dis that sacred cow of an institution that some of us forget has been in existence only since the end of the World War II.

 

How can I, for example, trust Debra Crane's damning condemnation ("Banal, ludicrous and bombastic", one might think she is one of the guardians of "good taste") when I vividly recall her enthusiastic endorsement of tasteless banality of Arthur Pita's "provocations" that I am unable to call "choreography"?

 

This is not to say that I do not share with some critics (Clement Crisp, Mark Monahan) sadness and frustration that an "electrifying, once-in-a-generation dancer" is wasting his unique talent, except that I hold "guilty" for this state of affairs as much the ballet establishment itself that prefers obedient mediocrity.

 

 

If there's one thing Mr. Polunin has been absolutely clear about since he left RB, and that is that he takes all decisions himself and lives his own life.  Quite how that marries up with your judging the ballet world guilty for the behaviour of a young man with a great talent choosing to squander himself on ...well, what... is unclear.

 

Having seen Project Polunin (a strange title) I think the critics have been kinder than those members of the audience who had gone to Sadler's Wells in the hope of seeing something extraordinary and were given something utterly banal, lacklustre and quite laughable.  

 

And when did any ballet lover ever refer to Russian dancers as 'poor boys from a poor country?'  Russian dancers have been rightly revered for all the many years I have been a ballet fan. Contrast that with your referring to the Royal Ballet as a sacred cow, and I think we can clearly see where the condemnation sits.

 

The critics have bent over backwards to find something good to say, their being Polunin fans without exception.  But what would you have them do - betray their credibility and professionalism in the cause of Narcissus?

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