James Griffen

James Griffen began his dance training in 2018 at Metropolitan Ballet Academy & Company in Jenkintown, PA under the direction of Lisa Collins Vidnovic. At Metropolitan, James had the opportunity to perform works by many notable choreographers including: Kanji Segawa, Sarah Mettin, and Ashley Walton. In 2021, he attended San Francisco Ballet School’s Summer Intensive and subsequently stayed for the next two years as a level 8 student primarily under the guidance of Pascal Molat, Patrick Armand, and Viktor Plotnikov. While at SFBS, he had the privilege of being a part of company productions such as The Nutcracker, Romeo & Juliet, Cinderella, and Giselle, as well as a new creation by Myles Thatcher. After attending ABT’s Summer Intensive in 2023, where he got to perform an excerpt from the Principal Pas of George Balanchine’s Themes and Variations, James joined Sacramento Ballet’s second company. While a part of SB2, he performed lead roles in works by Adam Hougland, Thang Dao, and Colby Damon while also performing alongside the main company in their Nutcracker and Paul Vasterling’s Cinderella. For the 24/25 season James was promoted from SB2 to Company Artist with Sacramento Ballet.