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May 25, 1999Viviana Durante could be a heroine from a romance novel. She is passionate and impetuous; a bubbly Aurora and a sexy Manon. But she is steely too, leaving Italy as a child to study at the London Royal Ballet's school White Lodge, and departing from a recent Royal tour to Japan after claiming that she was not treated with care by partner Bruce Sansom.
Durante, 31, is a complex woman and a complex dancer. At the age of 10, she arrived at White Lodge and immediately made an impact with her teachers but she felt isolated from her surroundings and did not speak English. However, in 1984 she was taken into the company.
Soon after, company director Anthony Dowell took advantage of Durante's reputation as a quick study and inserted the 17-year-old dancer into an injured Maria Almeida's place in the difficult ACT II of Swan Lake. She got her chance at essaying the full role and became a principal dancer at 21.
Durante has adapted to her second home well, and carries on the tradition of the typical English ballerina -- light, clear, and elegant -- alongside the statuesque extensions of Darcey Bussell and fellow guest star Sylvie Guillem.
In classical roles such as La Bayadere and Giselle, Durante reaches down a fleshes out the moral center, bringing into sharp focus the character's purpose. Her Nikiya and Giselle are so real to the audience, that when the cross over into the other realm they appear even more ghostly.
Durante is equally at home in more contemporary fare -- gentle in George Balanchine's Duo Concertant and precise in MacMillan's Four Seasons.
But it is in the works Sir Kenneth MacMillan that she makes the most indelible impression. As Juliet in MacMillan's Romeo and Juliet, Durante is a child on the cusp of adulthood -- a little scared but also delighted with love. She is also MacMillan's image of a woman with contemporary feelings, creating roles in Winter Dreams and The Judas Tree.
Some of her greatest triumphs have come in the role of Manon alongside longtime partner Irek Mukhamedov as Des Grieux. So moving are the two in this riches to rags story, many audience members can be heard sniffling as they leave the theater, "Oh, poor Viv. Poor Irek."
Durante will perform in MacMillan's Anastasia in her first season as a guest artist with American Ballet Theatre this spring, and Giselle. She already has received strong reviews for her performance in Romeo and Juliet with Angel Corella.