Sergei Polunin and his insults: Such a disappointement! Such an embarassement to the Paris Opera!

The Paris Opera Ballet has dropped controversial Ukrainian-born dance star Sergei Polunin from a production of 'Swan Lake' after he made a homophobic and sexist rant on social media.

The mercurial 'bad boy of ballet', who was compared to Rudolf Nureyev earlier in his career, blasted gay dancers in an Instagram post last month in which he urged male ballet dancers to 'man up'.

'Man (sic) should be a man and woman should be a woman, that's the reason you got balls,' wrote the dancer, who took Russian nationality in November and is a fervent fan of Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

'Females now trying to take on the man role because you don't f*** them and because you are an embarrassment,' said the 29-year-old, referring to gay dancers.

They 'need a good slap', Polunin continued. 'Man (sic) are wolves, are lions. Man are the leaders of the family.'

Paris Opera confirmed to AFP on Monday that they had withdrawn their invitation to him to dance the lead in 'Swan Lake' next month, a production in which the prince is supposed to be played as a repressed homosexual. 

A lead Paris dancer, Adrien Couvez, had earlier called Polunin an 'embarrassment'.

In the post he blasted male ballet dancers and told them to 'man up' while referring to gay dancers

The heavily-tattooed dancer is best known outside the ballet world for being the star of a video for Irish singer Hozier's 2015 hit 'Take Me to Church'. The clip, directed by artist David LaChapelle, quickly went viral.

Ironically, the song is an attack on the anti-gay stance of the Catholic Church, and its original video had a gay couple being hunted by vigilantes.

The dancer, who has a huge tattoo of Putin on his chest, had earlier declared that the Russian strongman should lead the world.

'I will pray for that because it would be ultimate win over evil. I believe this will be the future and my energy will help him do that.'

Paris Opera Ballet's artistic director Aurelie Dupont wrote to dancers at the weekend telling of her decision to drop him, calling him a 'talented artist' but saying that his public pronouncements were not in keeping with the company's values.