Vishneva bids farewell to ABT, but not dance
Diana Vishneva is not leaving American Ballet Theater without a plan. She’s leaving ABT because she has too many plans. What doesn’t she have? Time. When Vishneva performs “Onegin” on Friday night for her ABT farewell, she will leave behind an imprint of dance memories. A passionate, soulful ballerina, Vishneva burst on the scene as if from another world — although, technically, she is from St. Petersburg, Russia. In an early New York appearance, she performed George Balanchine’s “Rubies” like a ballerina on fire. After she danced as a guest artist in “Romeo and Juliet” in 2003, Kevin McKenzie, ABT’s artistic director, offered Vishneva,then a principal with the Kirov Ballet — now known as the Mariinsky — a contract. She became a Ballet Theater principal in 2005. But Vishneva also embraced life as a guest artist, dancing with many companies over the years, including the Bolshoi Ballet, the Paris Opera Ballet and Berlin State Ballet. Vishneva, 40, won’t stop dancing, but she is searching for new ways to perform. In August, she will open a studio in St. Petersburg where, along with classical ballet training, she’ll offer yoga and gymnastics for both professionals and nonprofessionals. She’ll also use the space to help cultivate new choreographers, which will expand on her work with Context, a dance festival she initiated five years ago that will be in Moscow and St. Petersburg this November.