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, 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 the Titanic, 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.