Sergei Polunin: Missing wildchild ballet dancer turns up in Moscow Sergei Polunin stopped going to rehearsals for Midnight Express last week The contemporary ballet opened last night with his understudy in lead role Spokesman for Polunin's Russian ballet company says he has returned There is still no answer as to why he suddenly left London Ballet prodigy Sergei Polunin has turned up in Moscow after vanishing just days before his new show was set for its UK premiere. There were fears after the 23-year-old Ukrainian, dubbed the bad boy of ballet, stopped showing up for rehearsals for the UK premiere of Midnight Express a week before the show was to start. The show's director, Peter Schaufuss, had expressed concern for the star, who is well known for his party lifestyle. Sergei Polunin dances with Tamara Rojo at the Royal Ballet in February: The wildchild ballet star has turned up in Moscow after last week fleeing rehearsals for Midnight Express, his latest London show It was the second vanishing act by Polunin, who dramatically quit Britain's Royal Ballet in January last year just a week before he was due to dance in The Dream. After the Ukrainian dancer failed to show up for rehearsals last week his hotel room was searched but he had vanished. It was even feared he might have been involved in an accident. But a spokesman for the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Theatre, where Polunin now dances, said yesterday that the star was fine and back in Moscow. The reason for his sudden departure from remains unknown, but there have been claims that he left because he didn't like Mr Schaufuss's production of Midnight Express. The heavily tattooed Polunin is a rising star in the ballet world, joining the Royal Ballet at the age of 13 and at 21, becoming the youngest dancer to be made a principal. After quitting the Royal Ballet last year, he told reporters that he found rehearsing "very boring" and wanted to give up ballet by the age of 26 as it was so gruelling. But he returned to the stage quickly, performing with Moscow's Stanislavsky Ballet and making guest appearances with the Royal Ballet. Polunin and Rojo in another scene from the same production: After the Ukrainian dancer failed to show up for rehearsals last week his hotel room was searched but he had vanished, raising fears he may have been hurt His lead role in Midnight Express, which had its preview performance last night at the London Coliseum, was taken by understudy Johan Christensen, who had been in rehearsals with Polunin. The ballet, that Schaufuss first choreographed in 2000, is based on the 1977 memoir by Billy Hayes about being jailed in Turkey for drug smuggling.