Film explores ballet's 'bad boy'

“Dancer” comes in: to explore the paradox of having it all and still not feeling satisfied highlighting the career of the “bad boy” of ballet.

Ukrainian ballet superstar, Sergei Polunin, appeared in a music video for the huge hit “Take Me to Church” in 2015. The emotionally raw clip shot by famed photographer David LaChapelle was shot in Hawaii and was shot with Polunin dancing in ripped, nude tights, his body covered in the tattoos he usually had to hide with makeup in his classic stage roles. It revealed the dancer’s torment as the music played.

Shot from low angles with streaks of sunlight through the windows visually highlights the dancer’s moves and makes Polunin’s leaps seem to last even longer. His combination of explosive power and aerial prowess made the video go viral. But Polunin inteneded it to be his swan song, even though he was only 25. He realized his heart was no longer in it despite his escalating fame. The trouble with that is that the video made him even more popular and added to his bad boy image.

At its core, Dancer focuses on Polunin’s relationship with his family and how his parents’ divorce — while he was a student at the Royal Ballet School — reverberates throughout his career. For his mother, especially, ballet was Polunin’s escape route from a limited future in Ukraine; for him, it was partly, a way to make his parents happy. His early years are featured through archival footage and they show a young boy with spirit and drive expressing a very driven passion for dance.

His teenage period was a bit tougher. After his parents announced their separation he swore he would never be that upset again and never miss anybody. It was the last time he cried for years but his emotions still worked themselves out through his dance and through his behavior outside of class. Seeking to cure the pain with drugs and alcohol earned him the label of a bad boy.

Director Steven Cantor provides intimate access to Polunin in all his shadings in this documentary. Besides the stunning views of the dancer we are also given a treat through the lens of seeing ballet world as he is trying to build his career in Russia with the help of the ballet director Igor Zelensky.

Watching his swan song played out in LaChapelle’s video in which he meant to be his final performance is unfortunate as the video went viral and had over 16 million views on YouTube gaining him a new audience who would be stunned he chose to walk away. The young man often referred to as the James Dean of dance may not be finished just yet, he has been dancing with this girlfriend at City Center but time will tell.

“Dancer” is unrated and is shown in English, Russian and Ukrainian. If you missed Friday’s showing, the documentary be shown again Sunday at 1 p.m.

Upcoming: “Embrace” (free), 3:30 p.m., Sunday; “The Promise”, “A Quiet Passion”, and “Sense the Wind” as well as concerts with Cowboy Junkies and Paul Thorn Band.

Patricia Walker is the executive director of the Panida Theater. She can be reached at panida.org.