Béjart fête Maurice in Paris – Diana Vishneva

Béjart fête Maurice in Paris, with the exceptional participation of Diana Vishneva

For its return at the Palais des Congrès in Paris from February 26 to 29, 2020, Gil Roman and the Béjart Ballet Lausanne welcome prima ballerina Diana Vishneva for a performance of the Boléro.

If Gil Roman proposes a Boléro in which Elisabet Ros and Julien Favreau alternately share the lead role, he exceptionally entrusts “La Mélodie” to prima ballerina Diana Vishneva on February 28th.

From February 26 to 29, 2020, Béjart Ballet Lausanne comes back at the Palais des Congrès in Paris, for five representations. On the program: t ‘M et variations…, a ballet where every step is a word addressed to Maurice – created by Gil Roman in 2017 for BBL’s 30th anniversary, Béjart fête Maurice, a series of excerpts of pas de deux from Béjart repertoire and Boléro by Maurice Béjart to the music of Maurice Ravel.

Set to dancer Duska Sifnos in 1961 in Brussels, “The Melody” is sometimes given to a female dancer and other times to a male dancer of the company. For the show on Friday, February 28, Gil Roman gives this main role to Diana Vishneva.

Prima ballerina at the Mariinsky Theatre, and principal dancer of the American Ballet Theatre (2005-2017), Diana Vishneva was born in St. Petersburg. She graduated from the Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet in 1995. In 1994 Vishneva won the Prix de Lausanne (International Young Ballet Dancers’ Competition) where she took both the Gold Medal and the Grand Prix. Diana Vishneva has performed lead roles in the international ballet repertoire including works by Marius Petipa, Michael Fokine, George Balanchine, John Neumeier, Kenneth MacMillan, Yury Grigorovich, Maurice Béjart, Angelin Preljocaj, Alexei Ratmansky, Mats Ek, Hans van Manen, Jean-Christophe Maillot, Carolyn Carlson, Ohad Naharin, Paul Lightfoot and Sol León, Martha Graham, and many others at the world’s great theatres. She has several solo programmes choreographed for her.

In 2013 Diana Vishneva established international contemporary dance festival CONTEXT, which now takes place in Moscow every year. The festival provides support and opportunities to the young choreographers in Russia. In 2017, Diana established Studio Context in St. Petersburg, promoting the idea that the art of dance can be accessible for all the people disregarding their training level or physical abilities.