Sarah Lane

Early life

Lane was born in San Francisco, California. She started training for dance at Ballet Memphis in Memphis, Tennessee. Her family later moved to Rochester, New York where she continued her training at the Draper Center for Dance Education. At the age of 16 she attended the Boston Ballet's Summer Program on a full scholarship. At the North American Ballet Festival in 2000 and 2001, she won first place and received the Capezio Class Excellence Award.

In 2002 she received the highest medal in the Junior Division of the Jackson International Ballet Competition. During that time she also performed at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., as a presidential scholar in the arts. Also in 2002, she won the bronze medal at the Youth America Grand Prix Competition.

Career

Lane joined American Ballet Theatre in August 2003 as an apprentice, moved up to the corps de ballet in April 2004, and was promoted to soloist in August 2007. She was awarded the Princess Grace Award in 2007 and a Leonore Annenberg Fellowship in the Arts in 2008. On July 7, 2017 Lane was promoted to the rank of principal dancer. Her promotion was announced following four successful role debuts - Giselle, Odette/Odile in Swan Lake, Princess Praline in Whipped Cream, and a leading role in Souvenir d'un lieu cher - as part of ABT's 2017 season at the Metropolitan Opera House.

Her repertoire with the ABT includes: A Shade in La Bayadère, Galya in The Bright Stream, Blossom in Cinderella, Gulnare in Le Corsaire, Amour and a flower girl in Don Quixote, Anne in Christopher Wheeldon's VIII, the Flames of Paris pas de deux, the Stars and Stripes pas de deux, Giselle and the peasant pas de deux in Giselle, the Two of Diamonds in Jeu de cartes, Clara in Alexei Ratmansky's The Nutcracker, the youngest sister in Pillar of Fire by Antony Tudor, one of Juliet's friends in Romeo and Juliet, Celestial in Shadowplay, Princess Aurora, Princess Florine and the Fairies of Charity and Joy in The Sleeping Beauty, the pas de trois, Odette/Odile, Polish Princess and a little swan in Swan Lake, a Goat in Sylvia, Swanilda in Coppelia (ballet), Princess Praline in Whipped Cream, Miranda in The Tempest, a leading role in Souvenir d'un lieu cher, Golden Cockerel in The Golden Cockerel, the Young Girl in The Green Table, the Two of Diamonds in Jeu de Cartes, Vera in A Month in the Country, and the leading ballerina role in George Balanchine's Theme and Variations.

Lane was the June 2007 cover model for Dance Magazine.

Black Swan

Lane served as a "dance double" for Natalie Portman in the 2010 film Black Swan, a psychological thriller about ballet dancers in New York City. In a March 3 blog entry for Dance Magazine, editor-in-chief Wendy Perron asked: "Do people really believe that it takes only one year to make a ballerina? We know that Natalie Portman studied ballet as a kid and had a year of intensive training for the film, but that doesn’t add up to being a ballerina. However, it seems that many people believe that Portman did her own dancing in Black Swan." This led to responses from Benjamin Millepied and Aronofsky, who both defended Portman, as well as a response from Lane on the subject.

Personal life

In December 2007, Lane married Luis Ribagorda, a member of the ABT's corps de ballet. They reside in Jersey City, New Jersey.

Publications