Sarah Lamb (born 17 October 1980) is an American

principal Principal may refer to: Title or rank * Principal (academia), the chief executive of a university ** Principal (education), the head of a school * Principal (civil service) or principal officer, the senior management level in the UK Civil Ser ...

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 ...

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 ...

, London.

Early life

Born in

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

, Lamb is the second of three daughters born to Kathleen and John Lamb. Her father is English and moved to the United States in 1950 as a child, after the death of his father. She first started with tap, then modern dance at age four and at six, started proper ballet at the

Boston Ballet The Boston Ballet is an American professional classical ballet company based in Boston, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1963 by E. Virginia Williams and Sydney Leonard, and was the first professional repertory ballet company in New England. ...

School. She was chosen to star as Clara for Boston Ballet's 100th anniversary performance of ''

The Nutcracker ''The Nutcracker'' (, ), Opus number, Op. 71, is an 1892 two-act classical ballet (conceived as a '; ) by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, set on Christmas Eve at the foot of a Christmas tree in a child's imagination featuring a Nutcracker doll. Th ...

''. Lamb began training with Madame Tatiana Legat, at the Boston Ballet School aged 13. She trained with Madame Legat for four years and continued to be coached by her for a year after she joined Boston Ballet's second company. She was awarded a gold medal in 1998 by U.S. President

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician and lawyer who was the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, ...

after being named a Presidential Scholar in the Arts. With Legat's coaching she won three silver medals in 1999 at the International Ballet Competition in

Nagoya is the largest city in the Chūbu region of Japan. It is the list of cities in Japan, fourth-most populous city in Japan, with a population of 2.3million in 2020, and the principal city of the Chūkyō metropolitan area, which is the List of ...

, Japan, the Sixth NY IBC in 2000, and the USA IBC in 2002.

Career and repertory

She joined Boston Ballet in 1999 as a corps de ballet, was promoted to soloist in 2001 and

in 2003. She joined The Royal Ballet in August 2004 as a first soloist and was promoted to principal in 2006. Lamb's repertory includes the roles of: Sylphide (''

La Sylphide ''La Sylphide'' (; ) is a romantic ballet in two acts. There were two versions of the ballet; the original choreographed by Filippo Taglioni in 1832, and a second version choreographed by August Bournonville in 1836. Bournonville's is the only ve ...

''), Marie Larisch (''

Mayerling Mayerling is a small village (pop. 200) in Lower Austria belonging to the municipality of Alland in the district of Baden (district of Austria), Baden. It is situated on the Schwechat river, in the Vienna Woods, Wienerwald (''Vienna woods''), so ...

''), Tatiana and Olga ('' Onegin''), Thaïs pas de deux, Masha (''

Winter Dreams "Winter Dreams" is a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald first published in '' Metropolitan'' magazine in December 1922 and collected in '' All the Sad Young Men'' in 1926. The plot concerns the attempts by a young Midwestern man to win the aff ...

''), Voluntaries, Polyphonia, The Grey Area, Afternoon of a Faun, Chroma, Infra, Tanglewood, Sylvia, Stop Time Rag Girl (''

Elite Syncopations "Elite Syncopations" is a 1902 ragtime piano composition by American composer Scott Joplin, originally published in 1903 by John Stark & Son.Alice's Adventures in Wonderland ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (also known as ''Alice in Wonderland'') is an 1865 English Children's literature, children's novel by Lewis Carroll, a mathematics university don, don at the University of Oxford. It details the story of a ...

''), Princess Belle Rose (''

The Prince of the Pagodas ''The Prince of the Pagodas'' is a ballet created for The Royal Ballet by choreographer John Cranko with music commissioned from Benjamin Britten. Its premiere took place on 1 January 1957 at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London, conducted ...

'') and Human Seasons, Manon (

L'histoire de Manon ''L'histoire de Manon'', generally referred to as ''Manon'', is a ballet choreographed by Kenneth MacMillan to music by Jules Massenet and based on the 1731 novel '' Manon Lescaut'' by Abbé Prévost. The ballet was first performed by The Roya ...

'').''

1998-2004 Boston Balle

* Odette/Odile in ''

Swan Lake ''Swan Lake'' ( rus, Лебеди́ное о́зеро, r=Lebedínoje ózero, p=lʲɪbʲɪˈdʲinəjə ˈozʲɪrə, links=no ), Op. 20, is a ballet composed by Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in 1875–76. Despite its initial failu ...

'' * Juliet in ''

Romeo and Juliet ''The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet'', often shortened to ''Romeo and Juliet'', is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare about the romance between two young Italians from feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's ...

'' (by Rudi Van Dantzig) * Lise in ''

La fille mal gardée LA most frequently refers to Los Angeles, the second most populous city in the United States of America. La, LA, or L.A. may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * La (musical note), or A, the sixth note *"L.A.", a song by Elliott Smi ...

'' * Gamzatti in La Bayadère * Olga in Eugene Onegin * Myrtha and Peasant Pas de deux in Giselle * Queen of the Dryads and Danseuse de Rue in Nureyev's Don Quixote * The Sugar Plum Fairy, Dew Drop Fairy and Snow Queen in ''

'' * Princess Aurora and Princess Florine in '' The Sleeping Beauty'' * In the Middle...Somewhat Elevated by Forsythe * La Fille Mal Gardee (2003, with guest artist Carlos Acosta)

Personal life

Sarah Lamb's grandmother, Helen Lamb (affectionately known as "Hellcat"), founded a summer camp for handicapped children called Camp Jabberwocky. Her father and mother, John and Kathleen Lamb, ran the camp for many summers after Helen retired. Sarah and her two sisters, Caitlin and Dorian, worked at the camp as counselors, under their parents' aegis. In the summer of 2009, Sarah performed a ballet with three of the campers in the end-of-summer camp play. Sarah Lamb married fellow dancer, California-born Patrick Thornberry, in 2005, and they reside in London. Thornberry now has a business teaching yoga.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lamb, Sarah Principal dancers of The Royal Ballet American ballerinas 1980 births Living people Articles containing video clips