About

ballerina_1257048skurenNathalie was born in Stockholm Sweden, to an American mother and a Swedish father. Her mother introduced her to ballet when she was four years old and at the age of ten she was admitted to the Royal Swedish Ballet School. After graduation, she was asked by director Frank Andersen, to join the Royal Swedish Ballet (RSB) in 1998.

In 1999 she won the Swedish Eurovision Contest for Young Dancers and in the european final she won the silver medal. She also danced roles like Clara in Nutcracker, Peasent pas de deux in Giselle, the pas deux trois in Swanlake, the pas deux quatre in Mahler’s third sympony and other soloist parts.

In 2001 she was promoted soloist by Petter Jacobson, then current RSB Director. The same year she debutated as Odette/Odile in the new setting of Sir Peter Wrights Swanlake on the opening night at the Royal Swedish Opera. It was a success. And BBC recorded the production with Nathalie and Anders Nordström in the lead, to be broadcasted on television and sold on DVD worldwide. The production went on tour to Gothenberg and Wiesbaden and she danced the Black Swan pas de deux at Dame Beryl Greys 75th anniversary gala in London at the Sadler Wells Theatre. The same year she also premiered in her favorite role Manon and as the soloist in Scenes des Ballet. She continued dancing leading roles, such as Aurora in Sleeping Beauty, Olga in Onegin, Hermia in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the Sugar Plum Fairy in Nutcracker wich she also guested with in Italy. Her repertoar also included neoclassical and modern leading parts in dance pieces by such prominent choreographers as William Forsythe, Gerorge Balachine, Merce Cunningham, Jiri Kylian, John Neumeier, Twyla Tharp, Angelin Preljocajs and Mathilde Monnier to mention a few.

In 2004 Nathalie had a guest appearance for a month with the Australian Ballet, where she danced Lise in La Fille Mal Gardee with principal dancer Robert Curren, at the Sydney Opera in Sydney. When she arrived back in Sweden she was prepared by Gunilla Roempke to dance the dramatically challenging role of Solveig in John Neumeier’s Peer Gynt. This lead to her promotion to principal, 25 years old.

Following more leading roles amongst them Pippi Longstocking in the ballet with the same name, choreographed by Pär Isberg, world premiering 2005. She also guested as Sugar Plum Fairy in Alexander Ratmanskys ”Nutcracker” with the Royal Danish Ballet in Copenhagen. In 2006 Krystof Pastor created the role of Isolde on her, in his new ballet Tristan, with scenography by artist Ernst Billgren, world premiering at the Royal Swedish Opera. The same year she had the pleasure of once again working with Natalia Makarova for the role of Gamzatti in ”La Bayadere” and touring to Athens in Greece where the production was danced on the famous ”Acropolis” amphi theatre.

In 2007 Jean-Christoph Maillot casted her as Cinderella in his version of Cinderella, later that year she was invited to join Maillots world-acclaimed Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo. During three years she guested countries the world over such as USA, Canada, Japan, China, Korea and most of Europe, with the roles of Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, Cinderella, Hermia in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Le Songe), the Queen in Sleeping Beauty amongst others, all created by Mr Maillot. She also interpreted the role of Hermia in the DVD of Maillots ’Le Songe’, recorded in 2008. In 2009 the renowned choreographer Marco Goecke created the ’woman’ on her in his creation of ”Spectre de La Rose” which premiered in Monaco for the 100 year anniversary of the Russian Ballet.

In 2010 she returned to the Royal Swedish Ballet, where she performed the leading roles in the ballets Manon, Nutcracker and Coppelia. And toured to Spain dancing Rättika by Mats Ek and Tablå by Christian Spuck. Introducing the season of 2011 she guested the ’International Ballet Stars’ Gala in Dortmund with the Spectre de La Rose pas de deux, where reviews called it a highlight of the evening. In december through february, a photo exhibition by photographer Tobias Regell with photos of Nathalie hung at the restaurant ’Tranan’ in Stockholm and ending that year she had the great honor to perform at the Nobel Prize Banquet Dinner with the Romeo and Juliet quire. In 2013 she danced Aurora with Daniil Simkin, Principal Dancer with the American Ballet Theatre and also made her debut as Giselle in Giselle by Natalia Makarova with Dawid Kupinski. This autumn choreographer Pontus Lidberg created the role of Raymonda in Raymonda on her. It had it’s world premiere at the Royal Swedish Opera in November and was the latest contribution to a long list of beautiful ballets that has been choreographed for the Royal Swedish Ballet.