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July 7, 1999
For some, Diana Vishneva is the perfect exemplar of the Russian Kirov style. But she is much more. Trying to pin down Vishneva is trickier than catching mercury on a pane of glass. Is the brown-eyed beauty just a pretty face? No, she is an accomplished technician who can whip through the most difficult parts as if she was tossing back a lock of her dark hair. Her extensions, which can rival those of Sylvie Guillem, appear effortless and she turns is if she swallowed a gyroscope.
Although Vishneva scampers through ballets such as Don Quixote and Carmen with flair, she is more than a soubrette. She can inhabit roles such as Giselle or Juliet like the great dramatic dancers before her.
Vishneva, a performer of incredible charm, can make dancing look so easy it is hard to believe that the native St. Petersburger was turned down twice by the Vaganova Academy before it accepted her. However, it didn't take long to work out any deficiencies. In 1994, Vishneva won a Prix de Lausanne and graduated into the Kirov Ballet the next year, having performed with the company while still a student.
Vishneva certainly came along at the right time. A new order was sweeping through the Kirov, and young dancers were getting chances at the best roles without growing stale in the corp de ballet. A principal dancer by the age of 20, Vishneva already has performed Giselle, Kitri in Don Quixote, Marie in the Nutcracker, Aurora in Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, and both female leads in Le Corsaire. Not content with conquering ballet's 19th century repertoire, Vishneva dances Balanchine with all the speed, daring, and clarity of a New Yorker.
Just a few days short of her 23rd birthday, Vishneva has already dazzled the Lincoln Center audiences with her Aurora and Giselle and now gets to flex her Balanchine muscles in Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux and the third movement of Symphony in C before returning to Russia.--Dale Brauner