This Sergei Polunin Interview Is Everything
(Photo by Thomas Whiteside for Interview)
Sergei Polunin, AKA everyone’s dream ballet boyfriend, is something of a rarity in the world of classical ballet—super outspoken, honest and always looking ahead to the next move, he made a name for himself as the “James Dean of the ballet world.” It’s always exciting to hear what Polunin has to say (and we’ll be getting plenty of that from his upcoming film, Dancer!), and this conversation with Interview magazine doesn’t disappoint. Complete with some stunning photos, Polunin gets real (as per usual) with his answers. Check out some favorite quotes below, and be sure to catch the whole interview here.
Interview
‘s Emma Brown: Dancer goes through key events in your life, like moving to London to study ballet, quitting the Royal Ballet, moving to Russia. Do you have any regrets about any of those decisions?Sergei Polunin: If you ask about regrets, I normally don’t regret. I enjoy everything, even if it’s bad or good. But I wish I could, instead of destroying things like that, I wish I could build, build, build. Maybe if I’d had the right advisors—mentors—I probably would have done it differently. But that’s the way I act out, and that’s the way I knew how to do it. I could only destroy to build. That was just my way. I wish I could have built without destroying things.
EB: Do you still dance everyday?
SP: I do. I have to. I wake up and I do class straight away, so that gives me a free day to do things. I do it by myself. I do it at home.
EB: Do you think you’re still getting better?
SP: I do. Not many people understand that, but if you open yourself to listening—you don’t even have to exercise—you get better with time. If you open yourself as an artist, as a human being to this experience of growing, you grow anyway. You don’t have to be every day doing the same thing—practice, practice, practice—you can grow. I feel like I’m getting stronger and stronger, and I don’t practice as much as I used to.
Oh, hello. (Photo by Thomas Whiteside for Interview)
