Matthew Golding (born 1985) is a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

ballet dancer A ballet dancer is a person who practices the Art (skill), art of classical ballet. Both females and males can practice ballet. They rely on years of extensive training and proper technique to become a part of a professional ballet company. B ...

and was a

principal dancer A principal dancer (often shortened to principal) is a dancer at the highest rank within a professional dance company, particularly a ballet company. A principal may be either gender. The position is similar to that of ''Soloist (ballet), solois ...

with the

Royal Ballet The Royal Ballet is a British internationally renowned classical ballet company, based at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London, England. The largest of the five major ballet companies in Great Britain, the Royal Ballet was founded ...

and a principal with the

Dutch National Ballet The Dutch National Ballet ( Dutch: Het Nationale Ballet) is the official and largest ballet company in the Netherlands. Its forerunners were Ballet Der Lage Landen, Ballet of the Nederlandse Opera, Amsterdam Ballet, and Netherlands Ballet (Nederl ...

(Het Nationale Ballet) in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

, The Netherlands.

Early life

Golding was born in the Canadian province of

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada. It is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and to the south by the ...

, where he started dancing at age eight.

Career

He began his professional ballet training at 14, at the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School, then moved on to the Kirov Academy of Ballet in

Washington DC Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and Federal district of the United States, federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from ...

, where he studied in class of Vladimir Djouloukhadze on a full scholarship for two years. At 16, Golding received the prestigious

Prix de Lausanne The Prix de Lausanne () is an international dance competition held annually in Lausanne, Switzerland. The competition is for young dancers seeking to pursue a professional career in classical ballet, and many former prize winners of the competition ...

, which gave him the opportunity to study at The

School in London, where he graduated with honors. Golding also won the

Youth America Grand Prix Youth America Grand Prix (YAGP) is a non-profit international youth ballet and contemporary dance competition and scholarship program established in 1999. Overview Each year, over 10,000 dancers participate in the competitions and auditions YAGP ...

in New York in 2002. Golding joined ABT's Studio Company in September 2003 and the main company as an apprentice in April 2004. He joined the

as a

Principal Dancer A principal dancer (often shortened to principal) is a dancer at the highest rank within a professional dance company, particularly a ballet company. A principal may be either gender. The position is similar to that of ''Soloist (ballet), solois ...

in February 2014 but left the company in 2017. Since then, Golding has been a guest artist with the Hong Kong Ballet playing Conrad in ''Le Corsaire''.

References

External links

Matthew Golding in ''Don Quixote'', the complete ballet on YouTube

American Ballet Theatre bio
* Film credit

1986 births Living people Canadian male ballet dancers American Ballet Theatre dancers Prix de Lausanne winners Dutch National Ballet principal dancers Principal dancers of The Royal Ballet {{Canada-dance-bio-stub