Viviana Durante author page

Viviana Durante biography

Viviana Durante is an Italian ballet dancer who trained at The Royal Ballet School and joined The Royal Ballet at 17. She became the company’s youngest principal dancer at 21, after stepping into the lead role of Odette and Odile in Swan Lake mid-performance.

During her years with The Royal Ballet, Durante danced leading roles across the classical repertoire, including The Sleeping Beauty, Giselle and Don Quixote, as well as major works by Kenneth MacMillan such as Manon and Romeo and Juliet. Her performance in MacMillan’s Anastasia led to a Laurence Olivier Award nomination.

Her international career included principal and guest engagements with companies including American Ballet Theatre, Teatro alla Scala and Japan’s K-Ballet. In 2017, she founded Viviana Durante Company, which debuted at the Barbican with Kenneth MacMillan: Steps Back in Time.

Durante contributed to ballet publishing as consultant and foreword writer for DK’s illustrated reference book Ballet: The Definitive Illustrated Story (2018). In 2019, she was appointed Director of Dance at English National Ballet School, and in 2020 she became its Artistic Director.

On 25 January 2024, One Dance UK reported that Durante would step down as Artistic Director of English National Ballet School at the end of the 2023/24 academic year.