Nicky Henshall

Nicky trained at The Royal Ballet School and went on to dance professionally with English National Ballet. After spending six years with the company touring across the world, she transitioned as freelance independent dance artist. As a freelancer, she has worked on a variety of projects with renowned international choreographers. Projects include The BRIT Awards with Wayne McGregor, working as a research and development dancer for Akram Khan during the creation of his Giselle for English National Ballet and appearing in The Nutcracker and the Four Realms, the Disney feature film choreographed by Liam Scarlett. Nicky was also part of the original West End cast of An American in Paris in 2018, choreographed and directed by Christopher Wheeldon.

Nicky has excellent people management and organisational skills and alongside her performing credits, is now a sought-after Rehearsal Director. In 2018 she assisted choreographer George Williamson during the creation of his ballet Embrace for Birmingham Royal Ballet. Last year at English National Ballet, Nicky also assisted award-winning choreographer Stina Quagebeur for her ballet Nora, which premiered at Sadlers Wells in 2019. Nicky was the Rehearsal Director for New English Ballet Theatre in 2018 for their Remembrance season at The Peacock Theatre. Having worked closely with Akram Khan as his rehearsal assistant for Giselle, she is currently the répétiteur for his latest work Creature that he is creating for English National Ballet, which will now premiere in 2021. When the Akram Khan Company toured their production of Outwitting the Devil from 2019-2020, Nicky was the Rehearsal Director during the tour.

Nicky has a wealth of teaching experience and during the past six years has taught young dancers across the country who are part of associate programmes such as ENB youth company, the CAT scheme and Cecchetti Associates. In London she has taught at the iconic Pineapple Dance Studios and Danceworks and has coached dancers at various vocational schools as well as Ballet Central, the graduate year at Central School of Ballet. Nicky has been invited by several professional dance companies to teach company class, including English National Ballet, Akram Khan Company and the New English Ballet Theatre. Since 2015, Nicky has successfully run her own monthly youth ballet scheme in Staffordshire called Staffordshire Youth Ballet.