Mariana Dias

Brazilian Mariana Dias trained at the Escola Estadual de Danças Maria Olenewa, Houston Ballet Academy in Texas and the London Studio Centre. In 1998, Vladimir Derevianko recruited her to join the Semperoper, Dresden, where she appeared in works by John Neumeier, Stephan Thoss and Xin Peng Wang and world premieres by Mauro Bigonzetti, Ralf Dörnen, Krzystztof Pastor and Robert North. In 2001, she moved on to join Leipziger Ballett, initially under the direction of Uwe Scholz and then, from 2005, of Paul Chalmer. Here she made her debut as Katharina in John Cranko’s ‘The Taming of the Shrew’ and went on to dance solo and lead roles in a range of choreographies and world premieres by Uwe Scholz, Paul Chalmer, George Balanchine and Martin Chaix. She has been a member of Ballett am Rhein company since 2009. In addition to numerous solo roles in works by Martin Schläpfer, she has expanded her repertoire here with works by choreographers including Merce Cunningham, Mats Ek, Jiří Kylián, Hans van Manen, Twyla Tharp and Marco Goecke. Most recently she has appeared in ballets choreographed by Demis Volpi – as Aunt Whirlwind in ‘The Nutcracker’, as the Waitress in ‘Geschlossene Spiele’ and in his production of ‘Bluebeard’s Castle’. She can also be seen in Roland Petit’s ‘Carmen’.