With the unexpected retirement of Sergei Polunin from the Royal Ballet a week ago the ballet world has been turned upside down with questions about the real commitment we expect from our young dancers in the 21st century. Polunin is one of the most naturally gifted and technically accomplished dancers I have had the pleasure to see since frequenting the RB performances since 2005 and I was really looking forward to his debut as Romeo in the upcoming production but alas that is not to be.
What causes a dancer to suddenly change his mind about his career? I am guessing that a number of factors affected his decision, both personal and professional, but for me I think the main question would be 'I am devoting my life to this art form and I only have until 40( if I'm lucky-less if I'm a woman) so what will I do for the rest of my life?' Teaching is a vocation, many dancers would not want to go into teaching or many go in and don't last. What do they do then? The clever ones have done degrees as they keep their career afloat on the RB stage - some are photographers, some become dance writers but as a foreign national in a country where perhaps your language skills are not what they should be what do you do? The practicalities of a career in dance become, suddenly, very daunting.
A panic sets in, a panic that you will be dropped (with respect of course but still dropped) at the first sign of injury; that you will always be looking over your shoulder for the next 'young thing' to take the coveted principal roles away from you. A life of constantly questioning your ability and artistic relevance is a very very tough life indeed. Dance is not the only art form that this happens in of course, but it seems that in the dance world this is felt more acutely than say music or the visual arts. At least in music theoretically you can play music until your last breath, you can't do this with dance in the same way. Perhaps it is because dance is so connected to the body, to the corporeal, that it does not allow you to age. Dance demands youthful exuberance and agility on every level - even mime roles require a certain bodily awareness.
Ballet (onstage) does not value the wisdom that comes with age the same way music does, instead it pushes its young apprentices to be mature beyond their years in order to portray a complex role in a complex work. (A contentious statement perhaps and one that has been hotly debated over the years)
Few rise to this challenge - they are the superstars of their generation, many manage with mediocre acting skills and brilliant technical ability but is it fair to expect our young dancers to commit so much of themselves when they have not even lived into their twenties? A nineteen year old can't possibly give the same depth of performance for a role like Manon (Macmillan) as someone in their early thirties. Yet the ballet world will push a young girl to explore these dark themes when she herself may not have experienced anything close to the extreme range of emotions expected by the audience in a work like Manon. Similarly in roles such as Mayerling (Macmillan) for men or Romeo, what we expect from our young male dancers in these roles is nothing short of a miracle. Yet some manage to portray these characters with a maturity beyond their years, but, as I said, many fail.
Some might say Polunin has had a lucky escape. I know from my, relatively minute, dancing experience I think he has - from his twitter updates he needs to get out and live a little and perhaps put things in perspective. Some say he is a fool - to throw away such an illustrious career at such a young age but I would say to those people: perhaps he is showing a maturity beyond his years, perhaps he is thinking about his future, perhaps he is planning ahead and realising that dance is not what he wants his life to be about. Reprimanding him for showing this maturity is an interesting twist. If he showed this kind of maturity onstage he would get 5 stars in the reviews - now he gets called a fool.............I rest my case!
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