Poddiakov A.N., Klarina E.M. People’s rethinking Polunin’s pantomime act 10,000-meter race (1981) after reviewing the materials about “The Death Run” (1959): an empirical study

In the initial stage of our study, participants were shown Polunin’s pantomime 10,000-Meter Race (1981), in which he portrayed a runner growing increasingly exhausted through different stages of the race. In individual interviews, participants were asked about their impressions of the pantomime. Then an emergent turn in the research occurred. One of the participants found and sent the interviewer information about a real competition between American and Soviet runners during the Cold War (Philadelphia, 1959). In that 10,000-meter race, held under conditions of extreme heat and humidity, athletes – striving to defeat their opponents – pushed themselves to the point of collapse. In Polunin’s 1980s pantomime, his movement patterns so strongly resembled the athletes’ disoriented movements that it was difficult to consider this a mere coincidence.

The emergent turn in the research consisted in conducting a second series of interviews. After watching the pantomime and discussing it, participants were later presented with print and video materials about the 1959 race. They were then asked again about their impressions of the pantomime, their attitude toward it, and its meaning. The variety of responses and emotional reactions ranged from radical shifts in attitudes toward the pantomime and the performer (both positive and negative) to no change at all in previously expressed meanings and impressions. This variety encompassed reinterpretations of the pantomime and reflections on the interaction between art and life, the way sport and duty to the state can be interwoven in international competitions, ethical concerns, the influence of the political climate on sport and everyday life, the pursuit of goals at great personal cost, and reflections on the meaning of life.

Keywords: pantomime act, flashback, plot twist, sociocultural context, meaning, emergence

For citation: Poddiakov, A.N., Klarina, E.M. (2026). People’s rethinking Polunin’s pantomime act 10,000-meter race (1981) after reviewing the materials about “The Death Run” (1959): an empirical study. New Psychological Research, No. 2, 207–227. DOI: 10.51217/npsyresearch_2026_06_02_11

Acknowledgments

We extend our deep gratitude to the volunteer respondents who participated in the study, showed interest, and generously gave their time. We also thank the experts who took part in analysing the data obtained during the study – Olesya Petrovskaya and Ekaterina Korziukova – for their careful, sensitive, and thorough analysis of the material, as well as their team spirit and professional approach. We thank Sophie, the communications attaché of Vyacheslav Polunin, for her kind response to our question.