Ballet's Bad Boy Sergei Polunin Is Back in This New Video
Ukrainian ballet dancer Sergei Polunin doesn’t appear to have completely shed his bad-boy skin. A new video from Rankin Hunger Magazine, “Sergei x Rankin,” shows us what happens when Polunin is given total freedom to explore his tendency for raw, emotional movement. Paired with British photographer Rankin, the duo creates a captivating video that explores our primal need for unrestrained expression set to an alternative rock soundtrack by Husky Loops.
The video opens with Polunin lying in a cage on the floor of a dark room. As the electric guitar joins in, Polunin is unleashed. The next two minutes are imagery overload, and all the while Polunin’s stunning classical technique pervades the chaos. The video plays with silhouettes and shadows (and our emotions, if we’re being honest). One minute Polunin is stuffed inside a tiny cage and the next he’s gracing us with those gravity-defying jumps we saw in the viral “Take Me to Church” video. His reckless abandon married with Rankin’s eye-catching videography is a match made in heaven and leaves us wondering, “What’s holding us back?”