Zoe Anderson reviews the Scarlett/Ashton/MacMillan triple bill for The Independent.

Independent

Clement Crisp reviews the Scarlett/Ashton/MacMillan triple bill for the Financial Times.

Financial Times

Neil Norman reviews the same program for the Daily Express.

Daily Express

Jenny Gilbert reviews the Scarlett/Ashton/MacMillan triple bill for The Independent.

Independent

Luke Jennings reviews the same program for The Observer.

Observer

In The Telegraph, Claire Wrathall interviews four members of the Royal Ballet who are at various stages of their careers.

Telegraph

In the New York Times, Roslyn Sulcas interviews choreographer Liam Scarlett.

NY Times

Zoe Anderson reviews MacMillan's "Romeo and Juliet" with Tamara Rojo and Carlos Acosta in the lead roles for The Independent.

Independent

Clifford Bishop reviews the same cast for the Evening Standard.

Evening Standard

The Londonist reviews the same cast.

Londonist

Charlotte Skeoch reviews "Romeo and Juliet" for the Huffington Post.

Huffington Post

Ismene Brown reviews Marianela Nunez and Thiago Soares in "Romeo and Juliet" for The Arts Desk.

The Arts Desk

Principal dancer Sergei Polunin has resigned, effective immediately. Anita Singh reports for the Telegraph.

Telegraph

Ismene Brown reports for The Arts Desk.

The Arts Desk

I wonder whether this departure will backfire for Polunin. It's one thing to decide it's time switch companies, but an entirely different thing to depart without any warning and leave a company completely in the lurch. He's literally given then less than a week's notice, and forced them to do some major scrambling to keep productions going. I can't imagine this leaves a good taste in the mouths of those at the Royal Ballet, both the artistic staff and the dancers whose schedules are going to be ripped apart. The ballet world is not that big - best to make friends not enemies.

Not only that, but he seemed to hint in earlier tweets that a change might be coming up, so clearly he knew something was up and still didn't bother to give the Royal Ballet any notice. Even Mason is not a picnic to work with, he owes his fellow dancers much better.

If I were another ballet company, I'd be hesitant to take him on, both because this doesn't speak well for his keeping performance dates and because anyone who associates with him is likely to be given the frozen shoulder by all to do with the Royal Ballet.

I wonder whether he'd have pulled this act in the US or Canada - my impression is the US union contracts tend to require significant advance notice before leaving a company (with some exceptions for abusive situations) or the dancer is likely to incur financial and union penalties. And the unions expect dancers to respect the contracts in exchange for equal respect from the companies - so blatantly violate a contract and the union is not likely to want to deal with you again.

All in all, it sounds like a stupid 19 year old move, and I hope this doesn't foreshadow other decisions down the line. He might be one of the top ballet dancers now, but when you're at the top, it's a long fall down.

To many this won't be a shock, but his timing is deplorable. Kate is right, his behaviour won't endear him to other companies but it will be interesting to see what the RB lawyers make of this as he could well be in breach of contract.

This story is front page news in today’s Daily Telegraph and every other paper is covering the story too. Polunin is scheduled to dance at Sadlers Wells at the end of this week and it will be interesting to see if he turns up for that. Actually with no clue as to where he goes next I imagine it isn't inconceivable that he will quit ballet altogether and maybe open the tattoo parlour he has planned.

Polunin aside, this leaves a big hole in the RB schedules and it will be interesting to see if his place is filled from inside the company or whether someone will have to be brought in. It would be a great opportunity for the recently redundant Andrew Bowman.

The Evening Standard coverage of the story appears to confirm that he will in fact be dancing at Sadlers Wells later this week

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/theatre/a ... -ballet.do.

Then again, 24hrs ago, he was supposed to be dancing with the Royal Ballet not long after. I don't think his word carries a lot of value these days...

Interesting to read the comments at the bottom of the article Cassandra just posted... It's quite true that Covent Garden has one of the least open policies in terms of press tickets, essentially limiting their press tickets to critics associated with print publications. Which don't exist in great numbers these days, and London group tends to parsimonious with their positive comments, to put it mildly.

Plus, while Covent Garden has been fortunate enough to do very well with ticket sales, no one is safe these days, and that includes professional dance critics. Just look at Denmark, where the coverage of ballet and dance has dropped to basically nil in the last five years, despite having two fabulous dance companies and very seasoned, respected critics. If you want to hear about the RDB, now you go online.

Kate

The publicity this action has spawned is completely out of proportion to its importance on a national level: last night it even made the BBC 10'clock news!

Put bluntly Sergei Polunin is someone 99% of the population hasn't even heard of and it is odd that what is such a mundane incident to those outside of the ballet world became such a major event for the media, especially when you consider that yesterday was anything but a slow news day. Either the RB expects their wayward dancer to eventually return and sees his departure as an unexpected PR bonus, or this is an attempt by the media to launch a new face onto the UK's dreary celebrity circuit. With his good looks and a taste for tattoos and hard drugs he will soon have the paparazzi dogging his every step if he isn't careful. All in all a very strange business.

Further reportage on the Polunin resignation from Ismene Brown at The Arts Desk.

Arts Desk

Judith Mackrell in The Guardian.

Guardian