Jeffrey Golladay is an American ballet dancer and was a member of the corps de ballet with American Ballet Theatre (ABT).
Biography
Born in Virginia and raised in Dallas, Texas, he started his training at Ballet Dallas at age 10 under the instruction of Thom Clower and Anna Donovan. In 1994 he began his professional career when he joined Ballet Dallas' main company and remained until 1996. In the spring of 1996 he decided to leave Ballet Dallas and further his training at the Houston Ballet Academy. In the summer of 1997, Mr. Golladay officially joined the San Francisco Ballet.
Career
Jeffrey Golladay joined San Francisco Ballet in 1997 and continued dancing with the company until 2001. During this time he danced a variety of roles, including parts in Lubovitch's Othello, Balanchine's Symphony in C, Lew Christensen's Con Amore and roles in various classical pieces including Giselle, The Sleeping Beauty and Swan Lake.
Golladay left San Francisco Ballet at the end of the 2001 Season and joined Houston Ballet.
His repertoire with the flagship Texan ballet company includes roles in James Kudelka's Firebird, McIntye's Peter Pan and Stevenson's stagings of Cleopatra, The Nutcracker and Swan Lake. His contribution in young choreographer Brian Enos' The Long Road Home in March 2001 was particularly well received.
He reportedly ended his tenure with Houston Ballet in 2002 without a landing spot. The Houston Chronicle attributed this to the fact that, despite Golladay's star potential, the dancer was not promoted.
In 2003, Golladay joined American Ballet Theatre as a corps de ballet dancer.
During his time with the company Mr Golladay has danced leading roles in Sechs Tänze, Sinfonietta, Within You Without You: A Tribute to George Harrison, workwithinwork and Drink to Me Only with Thine Eyes, Michel Fokine's Petrouchka, Kenneth MacMillan's Manon as well as roles in Agnes de Mille's Rodeo, Lar Lubovitch's Meadow, Frederick Ashton's Sylvia, and Twyla Tharp's In the Upper Room.
His guest appearances have included dancing the Caballero and Gunslinger roles in Linda Walker's A Southwest Nutcracker with the Tucson Regional Ballet.
Mr Golladay was part of ABT's principal dancer Ethan Stiefel's troupe "Stiefel and Stars", a four-week summer workshop for dance students held annually on Martha's Vineyard in the month of August offering pre-professional dancers a chance to learn from the stars of the field.
Star guest teachers include Stiefel, Gillian Murphy, Johan Kobborg, Marcelo Gomes, Sascha Radetsky, Stella Abrera, and Alina Cojocaru.
In the summer of 2012, Golladay left American Ballet Theatre and retired from dancing.
Companies and Roles
San Francisco Ballet
After joining the San Francisco Ballet, Jeffrey danced with the company until the 2001 season. Under Helgi Tomasson's direction he performed a variety of roles, including:
An Acrobat in Helgi Tomasson's Romeo and Juliet
The Carnival Dance in Lar Lubovitch's Othello
The Gangster in Lew Christensen's Filling Station
The Chinese Dance in Lew Christensen's The Nutcracker
The Green Man in Lila York's Celts
Helgi Tomasson's Criss Cross
Jerome Robbins’ Glass Pieces
The Entertainers in Kenneth MacMillan's The Invitation
Harald Lander's Etudes
Helgi Tomasson's Giselle
The Student in Lew Christensen's Con Amore
Balanchine's Theme and Variations
Helgi Tomasson's Swan Lake
Helgi Tomasson's Much Ado . . . Vladimir Anguelov's Impetuous Mark Morris’ Pacific Demi-Soloist in the Fourth Movement of Balanchine's Symphony in C Helgi Tomasson's The Sleeping Beauty Four Men in Nureyev's Raymonda - Act III Christopher Stowell's Opus 50 Yuri Possokov's Magrittomania
Houston Ballet
Jeffrey subsequently joined the Houston Ballet as a full-time member of its corps de ballet under the artistic direction of Ben Stevenson until his departure in 2002. During this time his roles with the company included: