Sergei Polunin – Romeo&Giulietta

The 30 year old Ukrainian-born dance star Sergei Polunin was barely 19 when he became the Royal Ballet’s youngest ever principal dancer. His talent has been compared to three huge icons: Nureyev, Baryshnikov and Nijinski, however Sergei has already acquired a fame of his own as true pop icon. “Take me to church”, directed by David LaChapelle and starring Sergei dancing alone in a cathedral-like hall, is edging 27.000.000 views on YouTube, an outrageous result for any dancer today.
Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” is the greatest romance ever told and set right in “fair Verona”.
Drawing inspiration from the Shakespearian tragedy, Prokofiev composed one among the most legendary and memorable music scores ever written for classical ballet. This year dance star and choreographer Johan Kobborg will bring his modern revision of “Romeo and Juliet” to Verona with Sergei Polunin starring as Romeo and Alina Cojocaru, principal dancer with the English National Ballet, as his Juliet.
This unique event will be held at the Arena di Verona, the temple of opera and one of the most enchanting amphitheatres in the world.
This wondrous setting will be further enhanced by the original stage designs by sculptor and designer David Umemoto.
Verona is preparing for the return of the Montagues and the Capulets, for Sergei and Alina, the return of legend and the triumph of love on stage.

Alina Cojocaru was born and raised in Bucharest, Romania. She has one sister. From a young age she studied gymnastics. Later she began ballet classes, despite never having seen a live ballet.
At the age of 7 or 8 she began gymnastic classes, progressing at the age of 9 to a Bucharest ballet school which acted as a feeder for the Romanian State Ballet school. Later the same year she took and passed the entrance exam for the school and a few months later was chosen (with 8 other Romanian students) by the director of the Kiev Ballet school to take part in a student exchange.
She left her family to train at the school, and did not speak any Russian. Initially, Cojocaru and the other Romanian students were taught separately, before being integrated with the other students in the third year.
The ballet school gave a public performance every six months and it was in one of these performances that Cojocaru made her debut, dancing the role of Amor in Don Quixote.
In January 1997, aged 15, she competed in the Prix de Lausanne international ballet competition.[3] There, she was awarded a six-month scholarship to train at the Royal Ballet School in London. In June she won a silver medal at the Moscow Ballet Competition and impressed the audience in Musqeteer by Alla Rubina. She moved to London later that year to commence her training, but did not speak any English.
After completing her six month training with the Royal Ballet School, Cojocaru was offered a contract to join The Royal Ballet as a member of the corps de ballet. She was also offered a contract to join the Kiev Ballet as principal. She subsequently joined Kiev Ballet in November 1998, believing she would gain greater experience as a principal dancer. She stayed for one season, dancing a variety of roles.