The first trailer has arrived for the documentary Dancer, which follows acclaimed ballet talent Sergei Polunin, a 19-year-old who has a questioning of faith in his dance right as he is at the very height of his stardom.
Directed by Steven Cantor and lensed by Mark Wolf, the film combines stage footage and photographs with Wolf’s lush cinematography to paint a portrait of the youngest principal dancer for the Royal Ballet, and a man on the verge of self-discovery.
See the trailer, along with a poster, below ahead of a release next month thanks to Sundance Selects.
Ukrainian-born “bad boy of ballet” Sergei Polunin became the Royal Ballet’s youngest ever principal dancer at age 19. But two years later — at the height of his success — he walked away from it all, resolving to give up dance entirely. Steven Cantor’s Dancer tracks the life of this iconoclastic virtuoso, from his prodigal beginnings in the Ukraine to his awe-inspiring performances in the U.K., Russia, and eventually the U.S., where he went viral after David LaChapelle filmed him dancing to Hozier’s “Take Me to Church.” Yet beyond celebrating the raw talent and wild ambition of Polunin, whose sights are now set on Hollywood, Dancer considers how wealth and success may not be enough when it comes to finding personal and professional identity.
Dancer opens in the U.S. on September 9th and on demand a week later.