Alisa Khazanova is a multifaceted artist with a career spanning theatre, film, and dance. As of May 2024, she resides in London and is currently involved in various international projects.
Born into a world of dance, Alisa began her professional career as a Bolshoi ballet soloist, performing in an array of classical repertoire, including Swan Lake, Spartacus, Don Quixote, Capriccio, and The Golden Age. Her impressive background includes a degree in Ballet Dancer and Choreographer from the Moscow State Academy of Choreography, as well as a scholarship to study at the prestigious Juilliard School. Furthermore, she made a name for herself as a choreographer, claiming the Grand Prix at the Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet choreography competition in St. Petersburg.
Following a serious knee injury, Alisa transitioned into the world of acting, making her debut in Nikolai Khomeriki's La Cinefondation award-winning short film Together in 2005. This was followed by his features 977 and Tale in the Darkness, both of which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. In 2012, she appeared in James Watkins' The Woman in Black, marking her first English-language film. Throughout her career, Alisa has worked with acclaimed independent directors, including Nikolai Dostal, Renata Litvinova, Pavel Loungine, Valeria Gai Germanika, Pavel Ruminov, Grigory Konstantinopolsky, and Anna Melikyan.
In the realm of theatre, Alisa is recognized for her one-woman shows, such as Agata Returns Home at Praktika Theatre and Shining at The Stanislavsky Electrotheatre. In 2018, she took the stage in London in The Girl and Death, directed by Maxim Didenko. Since 2022, she has been performing in The Last Word, a production centered around the final statements of women accused of political crimes in Russian courts, also directed by Didenko. The show premiered at Berlin's Gorki Theatre and has since toured internationally in Potsdam, Dresden, Princeton University, and Tel Aviv.
Alisa has also ventured into film direction, co-writing and directing her debut feature, the indie drama Middleground, released in 2017. Shot in New York, the film featured an international cast and a lead performance by Alisa herself. Her second feature, The White List, a procedural drama loosely based on real-life events surrounding a police investigation of a teenage suicide game controversy, was co-written, co-produced, and directed by Alisa, and premiered theatrically in autumn 2023.
