DIANA VISHNEVA: On the Edge Set for London Coliseum in April 2015

Ardani Artists will present the UK premiere of Diana Vishneva: On the Edge at the London Coliseum for just three performances, 14th 16th and 18th April 2015. A star of the Mariinsky Ballet and American Ballet Theatre, the programme celebrates her extraordinary technique and artistic versatility.

The evening consists of two works commissioned specifically for Vishneva, Jean-Christophe Maillot's intriguing pas de trois,Switch, and Carolyn Carlson's profound solo work, Woman in a Room.

Woman in a Room was created for Vishneva by Carlson, director of National Centre for Contemporary Choreography in Roubaix and the Atelier de Paris at La Cartoucherie de Vincennes in Paris. Inspired by the films of Andrei Tarkovsky, Woman in a Room is an evocative work that follows one woman's journey in life, filled with joys, bitterness and contemplation. The music is by Italian post-minimalist composer and cellist Giovanni Sollima with a finale piece by René Aubry.

Diana Vishneva was born in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg). She began studying dance at the age of six, and entered the Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet at age eleven, graduating in 1995. In 1994, Vishneva won the Gold Medal and the Grand Prix at the International Young Ballet Dancers' Competition in Lausanne, a feat never repeated by any other competitor. In 1995, while still a student at the Academy of Russian Ballet, she became a trainee at the Mariinsky Theatre and performed the title role in Cinderella as well as the roles of Kitri in Don Quixote and Masha in The Nutcracker. Ever since, she has performed lead roles in the international ballet repertoire including works by Petipa, Fokine, Balanchine, Ashton, MacMillan, Béjart, Petit and Ratmansky.

In 2000 Vishneva made her debut at the Royal Opera House as Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty.
Her international career as a guest soloist began in 2001 performing with the Bayerisches Staatsballett in Manon and at the Teatro alla Scala in The Sleeping Beauty. In 2002, she made her debut at the Berliner Staatsballett (Giselle and La Bayadère). The same year witnessed her Opéra de Paris debut in Don Quixote. Since 2005 she has been a Principal Dancer at American Ballet Theatre (ABT), dancing in Giselle, La Bayadère, Swan Lake, Romeo and Juliet, Don Quixote, The Sleeping Beauty,Manon, Sylvia and The Dream among other works.

In 2010 she created the Diana Vishneva Foundation, a cultural and charitable organization that works in Russia, the USA and Japan, the main tasks of which are to increase access to ballet for all social classes, to promote it, establish new dance projects and assist young performers and retired performers.

For four decades, California-born Carolyn Carlson has had significant influence and success across Europe. She played a key role in the birth of French and Italian contemporary dance through the GRTOP (theatre research group) at Paris Opera Ballet and Teatrodanza at La Venice. In 2006, her work was rewarded with the first ever Golden Lion given to a choreographer by the Venice Biennale.

Today, Carlson is director of two organizations, the National Choreographic Centre Roubaix Nord-Pas de Calais, which produces and tours shows all over the world, and the Atelier de Paris-Carolyn Carlson, an international centre for master classes, residencies and creating new works, which she founded in 1999.

Jean-Christophe Maillot studied dance and piano at the Conservatoire National de Région de Tours before joining the Rosella Hightower International School of Dance in Cannes and winning the Prix de Lausanne in 1977. In 1983 he was appointed choreographer and director of the Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Tours, which later became a National Centre of Choreography. He created nearly 20 ballets for this company. In 1985 he founded the Dance Festival, Le Chorégraphique. He was appointed artistic advisor for the Le Ballets de Monte-Carlo 1992 - 1993 season and in 1993 the director-choreographer.

He has created nearly 30 ballets for Monte-Carlo, including Vers un pays sage (1995), Romeo and Juliet (1996), Cinderella(1999), La Belle (2001), Le Songe (2005), Altro Canto (2006), Faust (2007) and LAC (2011). Several of these works feature in the repertoires of major international ballet companies such as the Grands Ballets Canadiens, the Royal Swedish Ballet, the Korean National Ballet, Stuttgart Ballet, Royal Danish Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, American Ballet Theatre and Béjart Ballet Lausanne.

Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo now incorporates the Ballets de Monte-Carlo Company, Monaco Dance Forum and the PrincessGrace Academy, headed by Jean-Christophe.

Ardani Artists was founded in 1990 by Sergei and Gaiane Danilian, two of the most innovative producers and impresarios of performing arts in the United States and beyond. In their longtime association with Segerstrom Center for the Arts, Ardani Artists has been integral in staging the Center's 2006 Mariinsky Festival, which featured performances by the renowned Russian opera company, ballet and orchestra conducted by Valery Gergiev, as part of the Center's 20th anniversary celebration and the opening of the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall at Segerstrom Center for the Arts.

Ardani Artists, again in association with Segerstrom Center for the Arts, commissioned and produced the first Kings of the Dance,Tour de Force I and II, Reflections, which starred seven of the world's top prima ballerinas, and Diana Vishneva: Beauty in Motion, which showcased the celebrated ballerina in several works. For more information, please visit www.ardani.com.

The Diana Vishneva: On the Edge Project is produced in association with the Diana Vishneva Foundation and additional support is provided by the Vladimir Smirnov Foundation.

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