Matthew Golding, Principal dancer with Dutch National Ballet, is set to join The Royal Ballet as a Principal in February 2014. The Canadian dancer has recently appeared on London soil during English National Ballet’s run of Swan Lake earlier this year in which Golding’s ‘dance’ acting, or lack of, was scrutinised by critics. An expansive dancer with exceedingly long legs, Golding is seemingly the mute prince, unable to express himself through the choreography.
Despite this, Golding’s first performance with The Royal Ballet will be in The Sleeping Beauty later this season, partnering new addition Natalia Osipova on 27 March. Osipova is arguably the coup of the pair of dancers for The Royal Ballet, with her fiery passion and outstanding technical ability. Not to say Golding is without these traits, simply the ability to narrate through his facial expressions.
Golding trained at the Royal Winnipeg Ballet and the Universal Ballet Academy in Washington D.C. In 2002, he was awarded the Grand Prix from the Youth American Ballet Competition and received a prize scholarship at The Prix de Lausanne to attend The Royal Ballet School. Following his studies there he graduated in 2003 and went on to join American Ballet Theatre. He then made the move to Dutch National Ballet in 2009.
Golding made his UK debut with The Royal Ballet last Season in which he danced as a Guest Artist, partnering Zenaida Yanowsky in La Bayadére. The roster of Principal dancers at The Royal Ballet is without a doubt impressive, yet is rivalled considerably by that of English National Ballet. Artistic Director Tamara Rojo – taking on the role following her Principal contract with The Royal Ballet – has done much to build the company up to an even higher status than it held under previous director Wayne Eagling, and looks set to achieve even more before the year is out.