James Whiteside in Don Quixote.

James Whiteside has been promoted to Principal Dancer with American Ballet Theatre, it was announced today by Artistic Director Kevin McKenzie. The promotion is effective October 30, 2013.

Born in Fairfield, Connecticut, James Whiteside began his training at age nine at the D’Valda & Sirico Dance and Music Centre, where guest faculty included Franco De Vita and Raymond Lukens. He continued his training at the Virginia School of the Arts for one year under the direction of Petrus Bosman and David Keener. In 2002, Whiteside joined Boston Ballet II. He joined the corps de ballet of Boston Ballet in 2003 and became a second soloist in 2006. He was promoted to first soloist in 2008 and to principal dancer with Boston Ballet in 2009.

Whiteside’s repertoire with Boston Ballet included principal roles in George Balanchine’s Theme and Variations, Ballo della Regina, Rubies, The Four Temperaments, Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux, Who Cares?, Serenade and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Oberon); Solor in Florence LeClerc’s La Bayadère; Albrecht in Maina Gielgud’s Giselle; the Cavalier in Mikko Nissinen’s The Nutcracker; Romeo in John Cranko’s Romeo and Juliet; Frantz in Coppélia and Basilio in Rudolf Nureyev’s Don Quixote. He also performed leading roles in Harold Lander’s Études, Michel
Fokine’s Le Spectre de la Rose and Les Sylphides; Jerome Robbins’ Fancy Free; Antony Tudor’s Dark Elegies; Jiří Kylián’s Sarabande, Petite Mort and Sechs Tänze; Twyla Tharp’s In the Upper Room; Mark Morris’ Drink to Me Only With Thine Eyes; and William Forsythe’s The Second Detail. He created roles in Jorma Elo’s Brake the Eyes, Plan to B and In On Blue and in Mark Morris’ Up & Down.

Whiteside joined American Ballet Theatre as a Soloist in September 2012. His repertoire with the Company includes Ali the Slave in Le Corsaire, Basilio and Espada in Don Quixote, the Nutcracker Prince, Arabian Man, and Spanish Dance in
The Nutcracker, Prince Gremin in Onegin, Romeo in Romeo and Juliet, Prince Désiré in The Sleeping Beauty, Prince Siegfried and von Rothbart (Ballroom) in Swan Lake, Orion in Sylvia and roles in Chamber Symphony, Drink To Me Only With Thine Eyes, In the Upper Room and Symphony in C.

American Ballet Theatre’s 2013 Fall Season at the David H. Koch Theater opens Wednesday, October 30 and runs through November 10. Tickets priced from $20 are available at the Koch Theater box office, by phone at 212-496-0600 and online at www.abt.org.

Back To ABT News >>