Two of classical ballet’s superstars, Natalia Osipova and Sergei Polunin, are to dance together in a contemporary programme in London which comes with an extra frisson after they confirmed they are a couple in real life.
The pair’s relationship had been the subject of widespread speculation in the world of dance.
On Thursday they put the rumours to rest: yes, they are a couple and they desperately want to dance together more often.
Polunin said: “At the moment it is a bit hard because for some reason big theatres are trying to separate us. They are doing everything possible for us not to dance together. We are fighting them.
“For artists to feel a real emotion to your partner is very important,” he said and when he dances with a partner he imagines it is Osipova. “It is hard at the moment but I hope we will dance together more often.”
Osipova and Polunin danced together earlier this year in Giselle at La Scala, Milan, but have not done so since they became a couple and it is clear that frustrates Polunin.
“It is not just with us, it has always been an issue and I don’t understand why when people want to dance together directors do everything possible to separate them. I guess so you don’t have much power, it is easier to control people.”
The heavily tattooed Ukrainian Polunin picked up the “bad boy of ballet” label after he dramatically walked out of the Royal Ballet two years ago after training with its school since the age of 13. He is now a dancer with the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Moscow Academic music theatre.
He was the Royal Ballet’s youngest ever principal at 19, and was compared to Baryshnikov and Nureyev, but admitted he was fed up with rehearsing and wanted a more normal life.
The Russian-born Osipova, a former star of the Bolshoi, joined the Royal Ballet in 2013 and has wowed audiences performing lead roles in Giselle, Don Quixote, the Nutcracker and La Fille mal Gardée.
Both are at the top of their profession and were at Sadler’s Wells on Thursday to talk about a contemporary programme of dance at the theatre next summer. Polunin was ostensibly there as Osipova’s translator as the programme was created with the ballerina in mind.
Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Russell Maliphant and Arthur Pita will create the pieces, with Pita devising a piece called Hotel Flamingo, based on the Tennessee Williams play A Streetcar Named Desire. Osipova will be Blanche and Polunin Stanley, and it will have elements of dramatic theatre as well as dance, they said.
It is Osipova’s first leap into contemporary dance. She is a ballerina often talked about as heir-apparent to the great Sylvie Guillem and the Sadler’s programme goes some way to reinforcing that trajectory.
Osipova, 29, said she wanted to do it now because she felt she was at her peak. “As a dancer I am always looking for the opportunity to challenge myself and try new things, so I am greatly excited about this chance to work again with Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Arthur Pita, and work for the first time with Russell Maliphant.
“I’d like to thank Sadler’s Wells for giving me the chance to work with them on a contemporary programme by three choreographers I really admire.”
Alistair Spalding, Sadler’s Wells chief executive and artistic director, said he was thrilled to be working with Osipova. “She is an incredible dancer and we are very excited that she has chosen to collaborate with Sadler’s Wells.”
The Osipova programme at the end of June will be a highlight of the spring/summer 2016 season, details of which were announced on Thursday.
Other productions will include the UK premiere of Golgota by French choreographer Bartabas which will include horses as well as dancers; the return of Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch with the last work completed before Bausch’s death in 2009, called “... como el musguito en la piedra, ay si, si, si...”; and a triple bill of new work by three female choreographers, Aszure Barton, Annabelle Lopez Ochoa and Yabin Wang, by the English National Ballet.
