Natalia Osipova & Ivan Vasiliev Bring SOLO FOR TWO to London Coliseum, Beginning Tonight

The world's most celebrated dancing partners, Natalia Osipova and Ivan Vasiliev are re-united for this summer's hottest ticket, at the London Coliseum, beginning tonight, Wednesday 6th, and continuing through Saturday 9th August in producer Sergei Danilian's presentation of SOLO FOR TWO.

The pair will dance three exciting, diverse pieces including two world premieres commissioned by the Segerstrom Center for the Arts and Ardani Artists. The evening opens with a piece to be confirmed, followed by Passo by Ohad Naharin, artistic director of Batsheva Dance Company, danced to includes Ohad Naharin's Passo, danced to the British electronic music duo Autechre and English traditional folk music. The evening concludes with a new work by Arthur Pita called Facada, danced to music by Frank Moon, Phil King and traditional Portuguese fado.

Natalia Osipova graduated from the Bolshoi Ballet Academy and joined the Bolshoi Ballet the same year, ultimately reaching the position of Principal Dancer. She has been a guest artist with the Mariinsky Ballet, Teatro alla Scala, Paris Opéra Ballet, American Ballet Theatre and Zurich Ballet and is currently a principal dancer with the Royal Ballet and American Ballet Theatre.

Her vast repertoire includes Gamzatti and Nikiya in La Bayadère, Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty, Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, Medora in Le Corsaire, Kitri in Don Quixote, Swanilda in Coppélia, Giselle in Giselle, Sylph in La Sylphide; principal roles in Leonide Massine's Les Presages, Twyla Tharp's In the Upper Room, Asaf Messerer's Class Concert as well as George Balanchine's Serenade and Symphony in C (3rd Movement). She originated featured roles in Yuri Possokhov's Cinderella and Ratmansky's Bolero, The Bolt, Jeu De Cartes, The Bright Stream, Middle Duet, Russian Seasons and The Flames of Paris.

Ivan Vasiliev was last seen at the Coliseum in March as part of the Kings of the Dance season. Currently a principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre, he studied at the Dnepropetrovsk Ballet School in Ukraine and later at the Belorussian State Choreographic College in Minsk. In 2006, he was invited to join the Bolshoi Ballet as a soloist, making his debut with the Company, at age 17, as Basilio. He was soon promoted to the rank of principal dancer. Vasiliev has been a guest artist at the International Rudolf Nureyev Festival in Kazan and has appeared with the Novosibirsk Opera and Ballet Theater Mikhailovsky Ballet in St. Petersburg.

In addition to Basilio and Ali, his repertory includes the title role in Spartacus, the Nutcracker-Prince in The Nutcracker, Colas in Sir Frederick Ashton's La Fille Mal Gardée, Solor and The Golden Idol in La Bayadère, Conrad and Pas des esclaves in Le Corsaire, Acteon in Yuri Burlaka's La Esmeralda, The Young Man in Roland Petit's Le Jeune Homme et la Mort, soloist in Christopher Wheeldon's Misericordes, Asaf Messerer's Class Concert and Philippe in Alexei Ratmansky's The Flames of Paris.

Ohad Naharin has been hailed as one of the world's preeminent and most compelling contemporary choreographers. As artistic director of Batsheva Dance Company since 1990, Naharin has guided the company with an adventurous artistic vision and reinvigorated its repertory with his captivating choreography.

Naharin began his dance training with the Batsheva Dance Company in 1974. During his first year with the company, visiting choreographer Martha Graham singled out Naharin and invited him to join her company in New York. While there he studied at the School of American Ballet, The Juilliard School. He went on to perform internationally with Israel's Bat-Dor Dance Company and Maurice Béjart's Ballet du XXe Siècle in Brussels.

Naharin made his choreographic debut at the Kazuko Hirabayshi studio in New York. That year, he formed the Ohad Naharin Dance Company. From 1980 until 1990, his company performed in New York and abroad. In 1990, he was named artistic director of Batsheva Dance Company and has served in that role except for the 2003-2004 season, when he held the title of House Choreographer. He has choreographed more than 20 works for Batsheva and its junior division, Batsheva Ensemble. Naharin has also created or set works on Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company, Nederlands Dans Theater, Ballett Frankfurt, Paris Opéra Ballet, Hubbard Street, Cedar Lake, and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.

Arthur Pita is a highly talented and versatile choreographer and director, creating works for dance companies as well as opera and theatre. He studied dance in Johannesburg and later at the London Contemporary Dance School.

Pita has created works for Johannesburg's Dance Umbrella, Resolution! and Spring Loaded at The Place, Mappa Mundi and Women Beware Women for the Royal National Theatre, Caledonian Road and Becky for the Almeida Theatre, Frankenstein for Derby Playhouse, The Winter's Tale for Royal Shakespeare Company, and The Glass Menagerie for the Young Vic. He created Snow White in Black for Phoenix Dance Theatre, which won the National Dance Award - Modern Repertoire, And Then Gone for Bare Bones at the Linbury Royal Opera House, The Stepfather for CandoCo Dance Company, Mischief (TMA Award for Achievement in Dance), Dancing in the Dark for Images of Dance, Utopia - a site specific commission for the International Dance Festival Birmingham, and The Metamorphosis for The Linbury Studio Theatre Royal Opera House.

Pita's ballets and dance sequences have featured in productions including Francesca Zambello's La Bohème and Show Boat, LA Opera's Idomeneo starring Plácido Domingo, Israeli Opera Tel Aviv productions of La Forza del Destino, The Royal Opera and Den Norske Opera's Carmen, Garsington Opera's La Cenerentola and Street Scene for Opera Group, which won the Evening Standard Award for Best Musical.

Pita has been an associate artist at The Place, where premiered Camp, which ran for three weeks followed by a U.K. tour. Recently he created God's Garden, a co-commission from DanceEast and ROH2, which premiered at Jerwood Dance House DanceEast and Linbury Theatre, Royal Opera House. Pita also creates and researches work for Open Heart Productions.

Solo for Two is a co-production by Segerstrom Center for the Arts and Ardani Artists. Following the Center performances, 25th - 27th July, the programme will be performed at the Stanislavsky Musical Theater in Moscow (31st July - 3rd August) and in London at the Coliseum (6th - 9th August).