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Bavarian State Ballet 16-17 season


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"massacred" is a bit harsh, don't you think? Making the journalists responsible? I don't know. Most dance journalists have a very wide understanding for dancers and their tempers or caprices, because they know enough divas (female and male) and their demeanor from dance history. I guess in Polunin's case it was just way over the top.

 

I wonder how so many other great, fine, serious dancers have bloomed and grown within that terrible system that Polunin is about to change... All slaves of artistic directors and managers? Zelensky the saviour? What about Sylvie Guillem, don't you think she made the best choices for herself some decades before Polunin?

  

Sergei Polunin is a human being, audiences do not have a god given right that he dances or performs for them, nor do people really have a right to comment on how he lives his life.

 

Sergei Polunin is an amazing dancer, he has a gift, and he has worked like crazy as a child/young man to ensure he meets his goals.

 

The issue audiences are allowed (IMHO) to have is when he is unreliable and does not attend a scheduled performance, and for this I agree with the public, it is very disappointing, and not very professional at all, and this is damaging his reputation as dancer. This has cost Polunin a lot, in that many of the big houses are not very keen to book him as a guest for their performances. 

 

That he is still an amazing dancer and he is still very young, means there is time for him to change, to mature, and to learn. Igor Zelensky is his father figure (and even the subject of a tattoo on Polunin's body), and could help facilitate this,

 

If he was announced to dance, I would buy a ticket depending on who the replacements would be, and how good the choreography is....then if he actually turns up I would be extremely happy that he does. The same goes now for Osipova performances now.

 

I very much hope in a few years all of this settles down, and we get to see Osipova/Polunin becoming the Nureyev/Fontane of the stage....dance will be all the better for it, as will Munich.

 

What is the idiom..? Plan for the worst...hope for the best.

Yes, probably is a too strong expression, my English is not very good and I try using too idiomatic expressions, I'm sorry, I want to say that when Polunin left the Royal Ballet, journalists have created a media event.

Also I didn't say that all the dancers are slaves, but they certainly are not the category of artists currently more protected; Margot Fonteyn was Margot Fonteyn, he was a nineteen year alone, foreigner, without support nor knowledge; Zelensky has the great merit to support him from a human point of view before professional and I just loved the fact that he hasn't taken advantage of his position for exploited the name of a so famous pupil.

Also as a fan I can absolutely understand the disappointment, but I wouldn't call a whim to have left the Royal Ballet for example, it was a very difficult choice for him, he had devoted his whole life to achieving that goal, but the inner discomfort and depression are not controllable things, are personal choices that we cannot really discuss because none of us was there in his shoes at that time; yes it's true, you buy a ticket and you expect certain things, but ballet is a "living art", isn't a finished product, if you know what I mean, the only way not to run certain risks would be robots-artists but at that point I don't think it would be more worthwhile. The things that make special an artist are often the same things that make him fail and make mistakes, it's the human factor...

And statistically speaking, it's rare that the most brilliant artists were balanced, rational people with a stable life and a linear path and even rarer in their youth.

About theaters, well I'm never very tender with them, too often they lay all the responsibility on the artists after having sold tickets using their name (not only for ballet) not to mention interests, inner politic, power plays, jealousy, envy ... In short there are many things to evaluate in this context, because hardly an artist, no matter how famous, has an advantageous position in relation to a big theater, especially as outsiders and I don't think I said anything so unimaginable or new...Besides, I've always preferred a brilliant artist though unpredictable and "problematic" compared to an entire team of perfect and reliable employees, but of course this is just my personal opinion! ????

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Well, I just find amazing that Polunin let us discuss, because when there are no dissenting views is time to start worrying in my opinion! Great artists are also important for this;

having said that, I would go back to the main topic of saying that in addition to the dear Sergei, I hope to see even Lucia Lacarra in Munich, who I hope will find an adequate place in the next season. She previously collaborated with Zelensky in the past, or am I wrong?

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