Diana Vishneva

People’s artist of Russia
Prima ballerina of the Mariinsky Theatre

Diana Vishneva was born in Leningrad. In 1995, she graduated from the Vaganova Ballet Academy, where she studied under renowned coaches Lyudmila Belskaya and Lyudmila Kovaleva. During her final year of training, she had an internship at the Mariinsky Theatre, where she performed roles in “Don Quixote”, “Cinderella”, and “The Nutcracker”. Upon graduation, Vishneva joined the Mariinsky Theatre ballet company and, within a year, made her debut at the Bolshoi Theatre. Her repertoire grew to include principal roles in iconic ballets such as “Giselle”, “Swan Lake”, "La Bayadère","Le Corsaire“, “The Nutcracker”, “The Sleeping Beauty”, “Raymonda”, “Don Quixote”, “Romeo and Juliet”, “Manon”, “Park”, and many others.
Soon after, Vishneva became a guest artist at Europe’s leading theatres, including the Bavarian State Ballet (Munich), La Scala (Milan), the Paris Opera Ballet, and the Berlin State Opera.
In 2000, she was awarded the Russian State Prize for her performances in the Mariinsky.
From 2005 to 2017, Vishneva was a principal dancer with the American Ballet Theatre (ABT), where she starred in "Swan Lake","Giselle“, “Don Quixote”, “Manon”, “Romeo and Juliet”, “Ballet Imperial”, “The Sleeping Beauty”, “La Bayadère”, “Sylvia”, “The Lady of the Camellias”, “Onegin”, and other major works.
In 2007, Diana Vishneva received the title of People’s Artist of Russia.
In 2010, she founded the Diana Vishneva Foundation for the advancement of ballet art. Three years later, she launched the International Festival of Contemporary Choreography “Context. Diana Vishneva”, serving as its artistic director and visionary. The festival was conceived as a creative global platform and experimental space for emerging choreographers and dancers. In 2017, she opened Studio Context in St Petersburg, a dance studio dedicated to making professional-level training accessible to both aspiring artists and dance enthusiasts.