Sarah Lane

Born in San Francisco, California, Sarah Lane began her dance training in Memphis, Tennessee under the direction of Pat Gillespie at the Memphis Classical Ballet. When her family moved to Rochester, New York, she continued instruction with Timothy Draper and Jamey Leverett at the Draper Center for Dance Education where she studied and trained for 8 years.

While studying at Draper Center, when Lane was 16, she received a full scholarship to the Boston Ballet’s Summer Program. In 2000 and 2001, she was awarded first place and the Capezio Class Excellence Award at the North American Ballet Festival. Lane was the Silver Medalist, the highest medal in the Junior Division, at the Jackson International Ballet Competition (2002). During the competition, she traveled to Washington, D. C. to perform at the Kennedy Center as a Presidential Scholar in the Arts. That same year, Lane also won the Bronze Medal at the Youth America Grand Prix Competition. 

Lane joined American Ballet Theatre as an apprentice in August 2003, became a member of the Company’s corps de ballet in April 2004, and was appointed a Soloist in August 2007. She was promoted to Principal Dancer in September 2017. Her roles with the Company include a Shade in La Bayadère, Galya in The Bright Stream, Blossom inCinderella, 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 peasant pas de deux in Giselle, the Two of Diamonds in Jeu de Cartes, Vera in A Month in the Country, Clara in Alexei Ratmansky’s The Nutcracker, Olga in Onegin, the Youngest Sister in Pillar of Fire, one of Juliet’s friends in Romeo and Juliet, Celestial in Shadowplay, Princess Aurora, Princess Florine, the Fairy of Charity and the Fairy of Joy in The Sleeping Beauty, the pas de deux from Stars and Stripes, the pas de trois, Polish Princess and a Little Swan in Swan Lake, a Goat in Sylvia, a leading role in Theme and Variations and roles inBirthday Offering, The Brahms-Haydn Variations, Chamber Symphony, Désir, Drink To Me Only With Thine Eyes, Glow-Stop, In the Upper Room, Kaleidoscope, The Leaves Are Fading, Seven Sonatas, Sinatra Suiteand Symphony in C. She created the Chinese Dance in Alexei Ratmansky’s The Nutcracker and a role in Demis Volpi’s Private Light.

Lane was a recipient of the Princess Grace Award in 2007 and Leonore Annenberg Fellowship in the Arts in 2008. She was the dancing double for Natalie Portman in Fox Searchlight Pictures’ feature film Black Swan.