The New Fontayne & Nuryev?
Lauren Cuthbertson and Sergei Polunin, the youngest ever male principal at the Royal Ballet, lit up 600 cinema screens around the world on December 17th, 2011 in a live relay from Covent Garden, London.
Sergei and Lauren are blessed with copious quantities of natural ability. But to see them go through their rehearsals, making the lifts, the spins, turns and dives look so effortless — and to realise they’re holding back their full effort for the performance, is breathtaking.
I edited this film for director Alison Grist and it was a huge thrill to see our work 40-feet wide on the silver screen. Even better was to overhear during the rest of the scene change break and in the cinema foyer the very positive comments about this and the other film we made.
UPDATE: In a shock announcement on 24th January, 2012, Sergei Polunin announced he was leaving the Royal Ballet with immediate effect.