ABOUT LOUISE NADEAU

Louise Nadeau took her first ballet lesson at the local Girls Club in Pittsfield, MA. She trained with the Cantarella School of Dance in Pittsfield and the Alexandra School of Ballet in St. Louis before moving to New York at age fifteen to attend the School of American Ballet on scholarship. She danced with Basel Ballet under the direction of Heinz Spoerli and the Kansas City Ballet under the direction of Todd Bolender before joining Pacific Northwest Ballet as a Soloist in 1990. She was promoted to Principal in 1992 and retired from the stage with a celebratory gala in June of 2009.

Her versatility and powerful interpretive skills made her a favorite in full length classical ballets as well as contemporary works. Ms. Nadeau has performed leading roles in over 25 ballets of George Balanchine. She has had the great fortune to work with many contemporary choreographers and perform works by William Forsythe, Jerome Robbins, Jose Limon, Alvin Ailey, Val Caniparoli, Donald Byrd, Glen Tetley, Twyla Tharp, Lynn Taylor-Corbett, Jean-Christophe Maillot, Paul Gibson, Olivier Wevers, Edwaard Liang, Paul Taylor and Christopher Wheeldon. Her classical repertoire includes the full length story ballets Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, Coppelia, Romeo and Juliet, The Merry Widow, Don Quixote and Cinderella.

Ms. Nadeau performed nationally and internationally with Pacific NW Ballet and as a guest artist. She performed the Divertissement pas de deux in the BBC’s 1999 film version of PNB’s production of Balanchine’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, filmed at Sadler’s Wells Theatre, London. In 2000, she took part in The George Balanchine Foundation’s Interpreters Archive series, dancing excerpts from Balanchine’s Agon, coached by Melissa Hayden.
 

Ms. Nadeau began teaching for the PNB School in 2006. Upon retiring from the stage in 2009 Ms. Nadeau continued to teach ballet and accepted the position of School Principal for Evergreen City Ballet in September of 2013. She returned to the PNB school faculty in the fall of 2015. In 2020 she was the Master Teacher for the Denver Ballet Guild Young Dancer Competition.