WORDS: MATT CAIN // PHOTOGRAPHS: STEPHEN MAYCOCK // FASHION: JOSEPH KOCHARIAN
“IT was so packed but it was crazy, it was fun.” Sergei Polunin is telling me about the last time he went to a gay club, on a night out with photographer David LaChapelle. Although he enjoyed himself, he was so anxious not to lead people on that he spent most of the night telling people he was straight. “There was actually one funny moment,” he says, “when someone came up to me and was like, ‘What’s your name?’ And I said, ‘I’m sorry, I’m not gay.’ And they said, ‘Is that your name?’.”
Polunin laughs and lashes me an arresting smile. Now 27, the Ukrainian dancer’s looks have caught up with his charisma and he’s grown into his sharp, angular features to become strikingly handsome.