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Nicole Townsend

@danceluvnicole

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Avant Chamber Ballet 🩰
Professional Ballerina and Model

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Together We Dance 2027 was a beautiful celebration of our community of dance yesterday!

Thank you to @klydewarrenpark for hosting and @dallasblackdance @balletfrontier @pegasuscontemporaryballet and @grackle.dance for your inspiring performances.

Photos by @pinkcords

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New York Fashion Week F/W Feb. 2026 ✨

Designers - @janaelesglobal @xolom_activewear
Show - @runway7fashion
Models - @ajohsogirlee @danceluvnicole @kloeysmithh @makennagalati @shen.mod @angela_xbc

#fashionweek #runway #photography #nyfw #fashion

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20 pics o’ Summer 26’

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Meet new company dancer Nicole Townsend!

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rescued a kitty. in love. meet Simba!

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Help us welcome new company members for the 2026-27 Season!

Nicole Townsend (she/her) was born in San Jose, California. She began dancing at age 2 and began formal ballet training at Ballet San Jose at age 7. Her training continued at City Ballet School in San Francisco. After a Summer Intensive on scholarship at Pacific Northwest Ballet, Nicole was accepted into their Professional Division Program. While there, she had the opportunity to perform with the company in The Nutcracker. She joined the Second Company of Kansas City Ballet where she performed Devon Carney’s The Nutcracker, Michael Pink’s Dracula and Septime Webre’s Wizard of Oz. She was awarded a full scholarship to Paris Opera Ballet Summer Intensive, was a recipient of the American Friends of Paris Opera Ballet Scholarship, and studied at the Dutch National Summer Program in Amsterdam. Nicole joined Oakland Ballet in 2022 and has been seen in Benjamin Briones Mixtecas, Alyah Baker's 4 Parts Jazz and Graham Lustig’s Luna Mexicana,The Nutcracker and Uncertain Steps. In 2023 Nicole performed her first Principal role Marie, in Graham Lustig's The Nutcracker, and reprised her role the following year. She has also performed Phil Chan’s Duet from Exquisite Corpse, Natasha Adorlee's Last Chinaman on theTitanic, Elaine Kudo's Page of 1875 and Wei Wang's Chinese Massacre for the Angel Island Project in Dancing Moons. In 2024 Nicole received an Isadora Duncan Award for Outstanding Achievement in Performance for her work in OBC’s Rainbow Dances. Nicole has guested for Alameda Ballet where she performed principal roles Snow Queen and Dewdrop. Nicole is delighted to start her first season with Avant Chamber Ballet.

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❤️🚀

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“Angel Island is structured in chapters, with several choreographers each taking on a different part of the story. It has a cumulative feel, each section adding another perspective rather than trying to tell everything at once.

Wei’s contribution focuses on one woman detained on Angel Island Immigration Station for close to two years. That detail alone shifts the scale of the piece. Most detainees were held for weeks. Some longer. But nearly two years introduces something else entirely.

It also reframes the comparison people tend to reach for. This is not Alcatraz Island. There is no crime anchoring the narrative. Only a system that held people in place, often for reasons that now read as arbitrary, if not outright cruel.

That carries into how he’s structured his section. Instead of trying to take on the scale of the history, he narrows it. One woman, one case, one set of circumstances that still resist easy explanation. “These people were not criminals,” he says, almost as a correction, or maybe just a reminder.

It’s also where his role changes in a way that isn’t entirely straightforward. For years, he has been inside other people’s work, refining it, carrying it, giving it shape onstage. Here, he’s responsible for building the structure itself, working with younger dancers, asking them to arrive at something that can’t simply be demonstrated or corrected into place.

As he puts it, the goal is for people to see what they have now and not lose sight of what it took to get there.

There are only two performances at the Herbst Theatre, May 8-9, 2026.”

#weiwang #angelisland #oaklandballet #aapi #outfrontmagazine

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[Making It] feat. @danceluvnicole 🔥 Man, I have been looking forward to this one. I came across Nicole while I was photographing a runway show for NYFW this winter and was instantly shook by her dance skills and poise on stage. We’ve been DMing back and forth since then so this chat was a long time coming!

In this conversation we cover how Covid affected her dance training, dancing solo versus with a partner, the Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty and her advice on how to take and redirect harsh criticism.

This was such a good chat! Stay tuned for the next one! 🫶🏻

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The next IG LIVE [Making It] episode is going to feature ballerina and model @danceluvnicole on Monday 4/20 at 3PM EST. 🔥

Nicole is currently based in FortWorth, TX as a professional ballet dancer and model. What she loves about being in a creative art form is being able to express words through movement, to continually work on an art form that requires immense discipline and a strong passion for ballet. She loves the euphoric feeling that goes through her body and veins as she dances and performs on a live stage.

These [Making It] conversations are all about creative’s “why” and the work that truly excites them. They’re loosely structured to stay relaxed, organic, and focused on the makers behind the work.

Designed to feel like two friends meeting over a drink, this is our space to explore what energizes us most. Doing it on IG Live keeps things human, raw, and unpolished, not overproduced. A peek behind the creative curtain at what it takes to make the work, not just finish it.

See you soon! 👀

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Experience New York Fashion Week Cycle 3 powered by @mgientertainmentus
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Sponsored by @world_runwaycircle
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Directed by: @buboiasuncion
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Designers:
@edwinfuy
@jeanamourdesigns
@viannkmansuroficial
@houseofgraylingpurnell
@emilysycouture
@marjorierennerofficial
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@macys @calvinklein

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Reminiscing on NY fashion week

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