Sergei Polunin

Sergei Polunin
Polunin in Richard MacDonald's studio
Born	Sergei Vladimirovich Polunin (1989-11-20) 20 November 1989 (age 27) Kherson, Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic
Occupation	Ballet dancer, Actor
Years active	2006–present

Sergei Vladimirovich Polunin (Ukrainian: Сергій Володи́мирович Полу́нін, Serhiy Volodymyrovych Polunin; Russian: Серге́й Влади́мирович Полу́нин, Sergey Vladimirovich Polunin; born 20 November 1989) is a Ukrainian ballet dancer who was formerly a principal dancer with the British Royal Ballet and is currently a principal dancer with Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Moscow Academic Music Theatre and the Novosibirsk Opera and Ballet Theatre.

Sergei Polunin was born in Kherson,Ukrainian SSR. From the age of 4 to 8, he trained at a gymnastics academy and then spent another four years at the Kyiv State Choreographic Institute. His mother Galina Polunina moved with him to Kyiv while his father Vladimir Polunin worked in Portugal to support them.

After Polunin graduated from the Kyiv Choreographic Institute he joined the British Royal Ballet School at the age of 13 in 2003, sponsored by the Rudolf Nureyev Foundation. He became a first soloist at the Royal Ballet in 2009. In June 2010 Polunin became the Royal Ballet's youngest ever principal. After two successful years, on 24 January 2012, Polunin announced his resignation from the company with immediate effect. He said he had become so unhappy that, "the artist in me was dying."

Several months later, in summer 2012, Polunin was invited to Russia by its famous ballet dancer and an artistic director of ballet of the two Russian theatres Igor Zelensky, and became a principal dancer with The Stanislavsky Music Theatre and Novosibirsk State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre. In early April 2013, it was reported that Polunin had walked out on the Schaufuss Ballet's performance of Midnight Express just days before its opening night.