Dancer

Dancer (2016) is a documentary about Ukrainian ballet dancer Sergei Polunin — watch it online on iFILM. Directed by Steven Cantor, the film follows Polunin from his childhood in Kherson, through training at the Royal Ballet School in London, to the moment he became the youngest principal dancer in the Royal Ballet's history at nineteen.

What comes next is where the film gets complicated. Polunin walks away from the institution that shaped him, gets tattooed across his chest, and tries to figure out what he actually wants from dance. Photographer David LaChapelle — who directed the viral Hozier video that made Polunin famous outside ballet circles — appears throughout.

Cantor doesn't frame this as a crisis to be resolved. He just watches. The result is an honest and uncomfortable portrait of what happens when an exceptional talent refuses to perform on other people's terms. Stream Dancer (2016) online on iFILM.