Vishneva, Diana

▪ 2008

born July 13, 1976, Leningrad, U.S.S.R. [now St. Petersburg, Russia]

 Within a few years of her first international appearances in the late 1990s, Russian ballerina Diana Vishneva rose to become one of ballet's brightest stars, and in January 2007 Pres. Vladimir Putin awarded her the honorary title People's Artist of the Russian Federation. Vishneva, a product of the grand tradition of the Mariinsky Ballet (formerly Kirov Ballet), dazzled audiences worldwide with the musicality, flamboyance, and technical brilliance of her performances and brought a modern physicality and energy to her expansive repertoire, which included works choreographed by George Balanchine, John Neumeier, William Forsythe, and Aleksey Ratmansky as well as the full range of 19th-century classics. Her strength, speed, and precision enabled her to perform Balanchine with an aplomb—and relish—beyond the reach of most Russian-trained dancers, while her radiant persona, pinpoint control, and famously pliant spine empowered explorations of new dramatic possibilities in such classic roles as the title character in Giselle and Odette-Odile in Swan Lake.

      Vishneva applied unsuccessfully at the age of nine to the Vaganova Ballet Academy in Leningrad, where Natalia Makarova, Rudolf Nureyev, and Mikhail Baryshnikov had studied. The rejection only spurred Vishneva's ambition, and two years later the academy accepted her. At the age of 17 she won the rarely awarded gold medal at the 1994 Prix de Lausanne international ballet competition. She turned down the prize, which would have enabled her to study for a year at an international ballet school of her choosing, and returned to her studies at the Vaganova school. During her last year at the academy, she also danced with the Mariinsky Ballet, quickly rising to become a solo performer. In 1996 she was promoted to principal dancer with the Mariinsky. Soon after, she began touring internationally with the company. In 2001 Vishneva was awarded a Golden Mask at Moscow's annual Golden Mask Festival for her solo performance in Balanchine's Rubies. Her growing renown brought numerous invitations to perform as a guest artist throughout the world. In 2003 Dance Europe magazine named her Dancer of the Year. By now an established international star, she continued to add new roles to her substantial repertoire, debuting in 2003 as the soloist in Kenneth MacMillan's Romeo and Juliet, in 2004 as the soloist in Balanchine's Ballet Imperial, and during 2004–06 in the roles of Odette-Odile in four different versions of Swan Lake. Having first performed with American Ballet Theatre in 2003, Vishneva became a principal with that New York City-based company in 2005.

Janet Moredock

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