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Sergei Polunin has had his UK work per­mit revoked. The Ukrainian-born star, 22, auto­mat­ic­ally lost the right to work in the coun­try fol­low­ing his sur­prise resig­na­tion as the com­pany is leg­ally required to alert the UK Bor­der Agency as soon as any of its for­eign dan­cers resign.

A Royal Bal­let spokes­per­son said,

Hav­ing resigned, Sergei no longer has the right to work in the UK.”

Polunin is likely to aban­don plans to appear at a gala even­ing staged by the Eng­lish National Bal­let (ENB) at the Coli­seum next month unless he can fur­ther extend his permit.

Wayne Eagling, artistic dir­ector of the ENB, told the Daily Mail that he has offered Polunin the oppor­tun­ity to train with the com­pany so he can do class.

Giv­ing him the chance to train with us may be a good way to get him inter­ested in us. We don’t have the Royal Ballet’s high salar­ies, but we have a dif­fer­ent philo­sophy. My dan­cers real­ise I treat them not as employ­ees but as equals. I don’t treat them as a com­mod­ity, rather as artists.”

Eagling, imply­ing that the Royal Bal­let treat their dan­cers in this man­ner, is echo­ing Ivan Petrov’s com­ments to the BBC last week. Eagling addes,

I always try to let my dan­cers guest else­where. Why would you be in a com­pany which does not give you oppor­tun­it­ies? It would be a shame for Sergei to waste such a God-given tal­ent at this stage. He could take up tat­too­ing at a later date.”

refer­ring to the tat­too par­lour that Polunin co-owns.

A source close to the bal­let world told the Daily Tele­graph,

He has suffered a per­sonal crisis. The pres­sure of people com­par­ing him to Nureyev at the age of 22 has been tremendous.”

The source added that Polunin’s recent private life – he recently split from his girl­friend, 31-year-old Royal Bal­let first soloist Helen Craw­ford – has been “a mess”.

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