David Hallberg

Biography

Born in South Dakota, Mr. Hallberg began his formal ballet training at 13 with Kee Juan Han at the Arizona Ballet School. In 1999 he attended the Paris Opera Ballet School. Mr. Hallberg attended American Ballet Theatre’s New York Summer Intensive in 1999 and 2000 and was an ABT National Training Scholar for both of those years. Mr. Hallberg joined ABT II in September 2000 and then American Ballet Theatre as a member of the corps de ballet in April 2001; was promoted to Soloist in January 2004 and Principal in May 2005.

He has danced all the leading major roles in the classical repertoire including Siegfried in Swan Lake, Romeo in Kenneth MacMilllan’s Romeo and Juliet, Albrecht in Giselle, Basilio and Espada in Don Quixote, Solor in La Bayadere, Conrad in Le Corsaire, the Cavalier in The Nutcracker, the Prince in Cinderella, James in La Sylphide, Aminta in Fredrick Ashton’s Sylvia and Jean de Brienne in Raymonda.

His repertoire of George Balanchine works includes Apollo, Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux, The Four Temperaments, Symphony in C, Theme and Variations, Ballo Della Regina, and Ballet Imperial.

Repertoire by other choreographers include the Boy in Jerome Robbins’ Afternoon of a Faun, the Second Sailor in Fancy Free, Other Dances, Death in Kurt Jooss’ The Green Table, a Friend of the Family in Antony Tudor’s Pillar of Fire and Romeo in Tudor’s Romeo and Juliet Pas de Deux, leading roles in Mark Morris’ Drink To Me With Thine Eyes and Gong, Oberon in Frederick Ashton’s The Dream as well as Ashton’s Symphonic Variations and William Forsythe’s work with in work.

Twyla Tharp created a leading role for him in her 2008 world premiere for ABT, Rabbit and Rogue. In June 2009, he created a role in Alexei Ratmansky’s world premiere for Ballet Theatre, On The Dnieper. Mr. Ratmansky created a role for him in his October 2009 work for ABT, Seven Sonatas.

In the summer of 2008, Mr. Hallberg danced James in La Sylphide in a new production by Johan Kobborg in Tokyo, continuing the role at the Washington Ballet in February 2009.

During the autumns of 2008 and 2009, Mr. Hallberg was a member of the ensemble, Kings Of The Dance, which toured Russia, Ukraine, Latvia, and Estonia. His repertoire included Frederick Ashton’s Dance of the Blessed Spirits, Christopher Wheeldon’s Four 4, Nacho Duato’s Remanso and Roland Petit’s Proust pas de deux.

Dance of the Blessed Spirit was originally created on Sir Anthony Dowell, who staged the ballet on Mr. Hallberg especially for this tour. Mr. Hallberg is the first dancer after Sir Anthony to perform this work.

Mr. Hallberg has been a guest artist with many companies including the Royal Swedish Ballet, Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, Kiev Ballet to name a few.

Mr. Hallberg was a recipient of the Princess Grace Fellowship and the Chris Hellman Dance Award for 2002-2003 and received a nomination from the Benois de la Danse Award in 2006.