aileen

From other comments I have read, the Men in Motion programme wasn't particularly well attended last night. There's just so much ballet and dance on at the moment.

I really hope that SP does dance with the RB again in some capacity. Guesting might work well for all concerned. In the meantime, I hope that the Men in Motion programme goes well tonight. If anyone goes to see it I'd be interested to know what s/he thinks of it as I probably won't see it having already booked for so much this month.

Does the RB just have too many senior dancers? Leaving Polunin aside, I've wondered whether the dancers feel that they dance too much or too little. Some do a lot of dancing etc. elsewhere. I doubt that those dancers would like a heavier workload at the RB. I have seen American commentators complaining about how little the principals dance at ABT but many of them are pursuing other projects elsewhere (one even has his own ballet company).

I am only really thinking of the men. There are or were 10 male principals (one of whom is a guest) - you have only mentioned three- plus a large number of experienced male soloists. IMO SP was overburdened because of his exceptional physical qualities (good height coupled with great technique) and the publicity surrounding the emergence of such a talented male dancer at such a young age (and RBS trained as well). It seems to me that there may have been a lack of communication between SP and the RB in that the RB thought that they were keeping him happy by giving him so many roles whereas he wanted fewer and more time off. There are still the issues of SP not liking the daily discipline of classes and rehearsals and, if his comment to the press last week truly reflects what he feels, his lack of enthusiasm for partnering the ballerinas, which may explain why IMO there was little chemistry between him and Rojo when they performed together at the Pavlova gala last week. It's hard to know how those issues can be resolved

As far as I could see SP was cast in the leading role in every production this season, which seemed to be part of the problem as far as he was concerned in that it did not give him as much time as he wanted to guest elsewhere or even to have a bit of a break. I have noticed that many of the other principals seem to have breaks in their schedules when they are dancing elsewhere or doing other things. If the RB had not been so dependent (I said "so dependent" not "dependent" above) on SP then why did they have to bring in Marcelo Gomes (whom I personally enjoyed seeing)? IMO they should have rehearsed three casts for The Dream anyway

I'm very surprised by this news, especially after his comment in the press last week about his visa. A large wealthy company such as The Royal Ballet should never have allowed itself to get into the position of being so dependent on a single dancer. In my opinion it says a great deal about the decisions which the company has made regarding the hiring and development of dancers

Who are the tall men in the Royal Ballet (Nehemiah Kish is one)? A lot of them look rather on the small side especially when you look at how tall many of the women are. I understand that 3 inches are added to their height when they are on pointe

Thanks for this post. I popped along to Clapham Picturehouse today (I only live a couple of miles away) having booked at 1pm. The cinema was not full. I enjoyed the performance particularly as it's not a ballet that seems to be performed in the UK much. I did see an ABT performance a couple of years ago but was not impressed. I thought the Bolshoi performance good but not stunning. The Bolshoi's audience was rather restrained in its applause. I don't know if that is typical. I noticed that The Bright Stream and Raymonda will also be shown. I would like to see them as, again, they don' t seem to be performed in the UK much.

Agree with everything said above. I do though still have quite a lot of sympathy for him. He's been on the ballet treadmill since he was a young child and only took up ballet as a means of escaping poverty. His natural talent, competitive nature and the knowledge that his family were making huge sacrifices drove him to succeed but what has come across in previous interviews as well as the most recent ones is that he never really had a love of dance. We the public are a fickle lot and I agree with Ann that he will soon be forgotten as other stars appear. I for one am a huge fan of Vadim Muntagirov over at ENB. He seems to be a complete contrast to Polunin in that he enjoys dancing and loves dancing with his regular partner Daria Klimentova (I hope he enjoys dancing with the other ballerinas as well!)

This is my first post. I wonder if Polunin realises how damaging these interviews are to him although they provide good publicity for Putrov's new Men in Motion programme. He effectively says that he doesn't like partnering ballerinas! Does he really have a future in classical or even contemporary ballet? He could I suppose join an all male troupe but I'm sure they still do plenty of classes and rehearsals neither of which he likes.