David Donnelly

American dancer David Donnelly is a First Artist of The Royal Ballet. He studied at The Royal Ballet Upper School and graduated into the Company in 2013, promoted to First Artist in 2016, promoted to Soloist, 2022. 

Donnelly trained at the Otto M. Budig Academy of Cincinnati Ballet and with Oliver Arana. In 2012 he won the Outstanding Contemporary Dancer Award at the Youth America Grand Prix, and joined the Royal Ballet School for the graduate year on a full scholarship by American sculptor Richard MacDonald. In the school's annual summer performance, he danced the role of the Man in Mark Annear’s La Destinee and one of the Two Brothers in Bejart’s Seven Greek Dances.

His repertory includes Von Rothbart (Swan Lake), Gaoler (Don Quixote), Drum Major (Different Drummer), Lensky (Onegin), Benvolio and Paris (Romeo and Juliet), Arabian (The Nutcracker), Hilarion and pas de six (Giselle), Eros (Sylvia), Florestan (Sleeping Beauty), the Cousin (The Invitation) and Bartender (The Age of Anxiety).

Principal roles in Anemoi and roles in Requiem, Anastasia Act III, Woolf Works, After the Rain, Within the Golden Hour, ‘Rubies’ (Jewels), Anemoi, Obsidian Tear, Scènes de ballet, Corybantic Games, The Human Seasons and Symphonic Dances. He has created roles in Gemma Bond's Boundless, Wheeldon’s The Winter’s Tale, and Liam Scarlett’s Frankenstein.