Viviana Durante is acknowledged by critics and audiences worldwide to be one of the finest and most dramatic ballerinas of our time.

She was born in Rome and came to London to join the Royal Ballet School at ten years old. After six years at the school she was offered a contract with the Royal Ballet Company. At only 21, she became First Principal.

Since then Viviana has danced all the major roles in classical ballet: Giselle, The Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, Romeo and Juliet, Cinderella, The Nutcracker, Don Quixote, Anastasia, Manon, Mayerling, A Month in the Country, Symphonic Variations, Different Drummers, Les Biches, Cyrano de Bergerac, Diana and Actaeon, Thaïs pas de deux, Sylvia, Apollo, Ballet Imperial, Stravinsky Violin Concerto, Laurentia, Birthday Offering, Requiem, Les Patineurs, Elite Syncopations, Symphony in C, Gloria, Cabiria and Anna Karenina.
She created roles in Kenneth McMillan’s Judas Tree, and Winter Dreams (based on Chekhov’s Three Sisters), and in many other contemporary ballets.

Viviana has received the London Evening Standard Award, the Time Out Award and the Premio Positano Italia. She was nominated for the Laurence Olivier Award in 1996 for her astonishing performance in Anastasia at Covent Garden, London. The Times has described her as being “in the peoples imagination, the heroine who dies for love.”

Available on video and DVD are her interpretations of Mayerling, Winter Dreams and The Sleeping Beauty with the Royal Ballet.

As a guest artiste Viviana dances in all the major theatres in the world including Milan, Madrid, New York, Washington, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Barcelona, Copenhagen, Berlin, Frankfurt, Seoul, Tokyo, Kyoto, Sydney, Buenos Aires, Verona, Rome, and Athens.

In addition to press and TV interest about her work she has done photographic shoots for Karl Lagerfeld and Valentino. She has appeared on the front cover of Cosmopolitan and had pages dedicated to her in Vogue, Harpers and Queen and others.

Even though dance occupies most of her time, Viviana is at present also taking voice and acting lessons with the intention of widening her experience as a performer, into areas of film and theatre.