Sergei Polunin

[nanushka]

2 hours ago, California said:

Something I've never understood: don't tattoos interfere with the body's ability to sweat at those locations? It just seems like too many would be a health issue, especially for athletes...

Perhaps not:

Quote

Perhaps most important, the study does not indicate that those of us with tattoos should sweat too much about our lack of sweat, Dr. Luetkemeier says. It is “unlikely,” he says that tattoos would impede perspiration enough to contribute to overheating or other problems in most people, even during exercise.

“In other situations,” he says, “such as where someone has been severely burned” and lost the sweat glands in the affected skin, “the body compensates,” he says, by increasing sweating from uninjured skin.

 

[Drew]

An article in English addressing the Putin tattoo, Polunin's texts re Putin, Russia, and Ukraine on Instagram, and a bit (just a bit) of the contexts for them:

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/news/sergei-polunin-putin-tattoo-instagram-russia-ukraine-ballet-hozier-video-a8668126.html

 

[cubanmiamiboy]

On 12/5/2018 at 9:21 PM, Drew said:

An article in English addressing the Putin tattoo, Polunin's texts re Putin, Russia, and Ukraine on Instagram, and a bit (just a bit) of the contexts for them:

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/news/sergei-polunin-putin-tattoo-instagram-russia-ukraine-ballet-hozier-video-a8668126.html

 

A bit OT...but even The Independent uses "principle" instead of "Principal". Is that accepted...? I thought not.  

[Mashinka]

5 minutes ago, cubanmiamiboy said:

A bit OT...but even The Independent uses "principle" instead of "Principal". Is that accepted...? I thought not.  

Pretty bad, but at least it's immediately seized upon in the comments.

[AB'sMom]

Well, he has an Instagram account now, and he has an interesting rant about how men should be men and women should be women. I think I preferred it when I knew less about his thoughts. 

[canbelto]

Here is the post:

 

[Rock]

Yikes!

[Kaysta]

He’s crazy.  And not in a good way.  I have no desire to see him dance again.

[Mashinka]

It really is a detestable attitude.

[cubanmiamiboy]

So I see he has voiced his opinions on transsexualism. And particularly on ballet.

[AB'sMom]

I would say he did more than that. He is endorsing men as being the strong providers and women as being weak and delicate and needing men to take care of them. He is extending his views beyond just what he prefers to see on stage. 

[Helene]

He, like we, is entitled to his own opinions, but not his own facts.

[cubanmiamiboy]

30 minutes ago, Helene said:

He, like we, is entitled to his own opinions, but not his own facts.

Exactly. It is not for someone to say "God doesn't exist" as opposed to "I believe God doesn't exist".

He's certainly voicing, aside from his own, a good part of society's opinions, including well known religious sects. Controversial but very much present.

[canbelto]

He is voicing an opinion that is simply not supported by facts.

Gender is an identity, but we now know that there are many babies born who are in fact intersex. They might be genetically male but present as having more female genitals, and vice versa. There is the well-known cases of East German women who after artitficial hormone injections began to talk, walk, and look like men. 

And bringing it back to the arts in nearly EVERY CULTURE there is a vibrant arts tradition of gender-fluid entertainment. 

In Chinese (Peking) opera tradition, the prima diva role is almost always taken by a dan, which is a male trained from childhood to impersonate the voice and mannerisms of a female. One of the most famous was Mei Lang Fang, who also was the father of 11 children offstage.

In Western operas there are the travesti/trouser roles, and also the castrati fetish. Castrati were supposed to have combined the purity of the female soprano with the raw power of a real tenor. They were also adored for their androgynous looks. In ballet Sir Frederick Ashton played a lot with gender bending -- there's La fille mal gardee, the stepsisters in Cinderella. In older ballets there's Madge in La Sylphide, or Carabosse in Sleeping Beauty where traditionally both males and females can take on these roles.

Even "ballet is woman" George Balanchine made a number of ballets where the female was dominant and almost predatory, like Prodigal Son, Agon or Four Temperaments. 

So basically Polunin is simply factually wrong.

Edited January 4, 2019 by canbelto

[cubanmiamiboy]

7 hours ago, canbelto said:

So basically Polunin is simply factually wrong.

I was referencing to his point of men being the "strong sex" vs women as the "weak sex". By doing so, even if perceived wrong by a big part of society, he's also voicing the sentiment of another part of the same society who sides with his view. 

[Mashinka]

He seems to be buying into the rather worrying form of nationalism that has taken root in Russia and seems to be fostered by both the present government and the church, it is virulently homophobic and misogynistic.  The tattoo of Putin is another clue that he supports that ideology.  I hear he has something planned at the London Palladium this year, I fear if these views get into the mainstream media he may well struggle to attract an audience.  

[howpureisivory]

Is he still with Osipova? If so, I wonder how she feels about all this. I think this is the interview where it absolutely seemed like she wore the pants in that relationship.
 

 

[Helene]

4 hours ago, cubanmiamiboy said:

I was referencing to his point of men being the "strong sex" vs women as the "weak sex". By doing so, even if perceived wrong by a big part of society, he's also voicing the sentiment of another part of the same society who sides with his view. 

There are also people who carried Tiki torches in Alexandria and plenty of people from another part of the same society who sided with the marchers' view.  There are people for whom Polunin speaks and other people who are appalled by what he says.

[naomikage]

2 hours ago, howpureisivory said:

Is he still with Osipova? If so, I wonder how she feels about all this. I think this is the interview where it absolutely seemed like she wore the pants in that relationship.

According to this interview, Osipova has been settled with a new boyfriend.

https://www.thestage.co.uk/features/interviews/2018/prima-ballerina-natalia-osipova-interview-royal-ballet/

[howpureisivory]

8 minutes ago, naomikage said:

According to this interview, Osipova has been settled with a new boyfriend.

https://www.thestage.co.uk/features/interviews/2018/prima-ballerina-natalia-osipova-interview-royal-ballet/

Thank you for this. It was a great read and does lend some insight!

[AB'sMom]

I find that when men speak about how they should be the strong, dominant ones in a relationship, though it’s often coded as an attack on other men they view as weak, it is actually really about women who refuse to accept the role as the weaker sex. But, of course, since men are supposed to be the stronger sex, it must be their fault that women are getting away with it. I’m not surprised their relationship didn’t last. 

[cubanmiamiboy]

On 1/4/2019 at 9:44 AM, Helene said:

There are also people who carried Tiki torches in Alexandria and plenty of people from another part of the same society who sided with the marchers' view.  There are people for whom Polunin speaks and other people who are appalled by what he says.

And considering how strong Russian nationalism has become during Putin's era, his political views-(him being Ukranian)- sounds pretty appalling to his countrymen. The whole gender thing is a totally different animal in my book.

Edited January 13, 2019 by cubanmiamiboy

[Khoretskaya]

On 1/4/2019 at 2:13 PM, cubanmiamiboy said:

And considering how strong Russian nationalism has become during Putin's era, his political views-(him being Georgian)- sound pretty appalling to his countrymen. The whole gender thing is a totally different anima in my view.

I assume you mean Ukrainian - he's from Kherson. From his name, and given his political opinions, I would think it likely that he's one of the many 'ethnically Russian' Ukrainians.

[canbelto]

Sergei Polunin has been uninvited to guest at POB:

In translation:

 

"I know the talented artist he is but I discovered public statements that shock me and do not respect my values."

[cubanmiamiboy]

3 hours ago, Khoretskaya said:

I assume you mean Ukrainian - he's from Kherson. From his name, and given his political opinions, I would think it likely that he's one of the many 'ethnically Russian' Ukrainians.

Yes. My bad.