MOSCOW, August 7. /TASS/. Choreographer and ballet dancer Sergei Polunin has established a charity fund to support talented kids and professional dancers, the dancer told TASS.

"We have just picked up the charity fund registration certificate from the Russian Ministry of Justice. Its full name is 'Sergei Polunin’s Charity Foundation for Support and Encouragement of Arts'," he said.

The choreographer pinpointed the three key aims of the fund. The first is to search for young talented children across Russia, while the fund can also support kids from other countries. The second is patronage of professional dancers, ballet masters, choreographers, composers and artists. "It is equally important to support artists when they have already reached the professional level and, on the contrary, have reached the age which is considered as pre-retirement in this profession. The world of classical dance is hierarchical and even despotic, the rigid limitations often make it impossible to fully explore the talent and realize all ideas," he added.

Polunin stressed that the third aim of the fund is to encourage the development of ballet as an art and create choreography of the future.

The dancer also noted that the fund is currently devising its first charity programs. "We will present them later, while we begin with scouting and personal grants. The fund’s board of trustees is also being formed now. We are holding partnership negotiations now. We will be glad to work with companies and organizations that share our values. We have ambitious plans," Polunin stated.

The ballet dancer also pointed out that he understands the importance of personalized support first-hand, his ballet trainings in London were sponsored by the Rudolf Nureyev Foundation, and now he knows how this mechanism works and what can be improved. He also told TASS that he had taken up supporting four young talents in Serbia this year, while the fund’s creation will allow him to carry out a larger-scale and more systematic work in Russia.

Sergei Polunin

Sergei Polunin was born on November 20, 1989 in Kherson (Ukrainian SSR). At the age of 13, the would-be dancer moved to London where he studied at the British Royal Ballet School. From 2007 to 2012, Polunin was the Royal Ballet’s principal dancer.

In 2012, he became the principal dancer of the Stanislavski and Nemirovich-Danchenko Moscow Academic Music Theater and, at the same time, permanent guest principal dancer of the Novosibirsk Opera and Ballet Theater. In 2016, he was invited for a position of the guest principal dancer at the Bayerisches Staatsballett in Munich.

In 2016, Stephen Cantor’s biopic about Sergei Polunin’s life and career was nominated for the Producers Guild of America Award in the best documentary category. In 2017, he also played a role in Murder on the Orient Express, as well as played a bit part in Red Sparrow (2018) alongside Jennifer Lawrence.

In the end of 2018, Polunin received Russian citizenship.