In February 2025, Oregon Ballet Theatre’s Charlotte Nash had just finished her variation as Myrtha in Giselle when she was told to change costumes; the dancer performing the title role had become injured. Before she could comprehend what had happened, Nash was back on stage for the pas de deux and completed the rest of the act as Giselle alongside Ben Simoens, as Albrecht. “It was the most present I’d ever felt in my life,” says Nash, who had also recently recovered from a strained Achilles. “I just remember fully moving with the music, one moment at a time.” She and Simoens were promoted to soloist onstage that night.
Nash, now in her fifth year at OBT, has a reputation for exhibiting grace under pressure. The 27-year-old is a strong, grounded dancer whose wide range of training and early-career experience has helped her thrive in a diverse range of repertoire and styles. “She can handle anything,” says OBT principal John-Paul Simoens, one of Nash’s most frequent partners (and Ben’s brother). “There’s not a complacent bone in her body.” Since moving up to soloist, Nash has continued to push herself artistically. And as someone who invests in widening her worldview outside of ballet, that calm, adaptable quality follows her both on and off the stage.
courtesy OBT.
Trying Something New
Nash grew up in Sammamish, Washington, playing various sports. One of four siblings, she followed her older sister, Tasia, into ballet at Pacific Northwest Ballet School’s Bellevue suburb location, the Francia Russell Center. “I was not the most naturally talented,” Nash recalls. “My parents joked I was in it for socializing.”
Her focus changed after a parent-teacher conference at age 10. “My teacher said I could become a professional dancer if I wanted to. I didn’t even know people did that,” she says. From then on, Nash dedicated herself to ballet. At 13, she transferred to the Seattle location of the Pacific Northwest Ballet School and trained up through its highest level. But when she was offered the opportunity to take classes with the Professional Division students in addition to her regular classes, she decided to pivot. “I’m really drawn to new experiences,” she says. At 16, she enrolled at San Francisco Ballet School for one year, then spent the following year with Houston Ballet 2.
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As a Balanchine-trained dancer, Nash grappled with adjusting to the schools’ more classical styles. She was used to having her weight further over her toes, and she felt behind her classmates. While at HB2, Nash built strength with the company’s personal trainer and had a breakthrough in her musicality. But as the months progressed, she realized that Houston Ballet wouldn’t be her permanent home. “It was very high-stress,” she says. “I felt I needed to be in a smaller company.”
Expanding Her Horizons
The next season, at 18, Nash joined BalletMet 2, but a stress fracture in her foot nearly caused her to stop dancing that December. Unsure of her next steps, she applied to colleges and sent out video materials to ballet companies. That May, just as she returned from her injury, Ballet RI (formerly Festival Ballet Providence) invited her to audition. They offered her a company contract—her first paid opportunity. Though she enjoyed her time at BalletMet2, she took the job.
In the meantime, Nash had also been accepted to The Ohio State University. Rather than waiting, she pursued her bachelor’s in health sciences part-time while dancing. Over the next five years, she took classes online, as well as summer and evening in-person courses at a local community college with transferable credits. She later added a minor in epidemiology. Nash credits her college experience for giving her balance and perspective, especially a summer spent working in an epidemiology lab studying the effects of evictions on maternal and child health.
During Nash’s three years at Ballet RI, current company leaders Kathleen Breen Combes and Yury Yanowsky helped her refine her artistry. Soon, she debuted principal roles like The Nutcracker’s Sugar Plum Fairy and Kitri in Don Quixote. “I never felt very anxious when I was rehearsing or performing there,” she reflects. “I’m happy I had that experience as a young person.”
“There are people who enter a cold pool bit by bit. Charlotte jumps in.”
oregon ballet theatre artistic director dani rowe
Going For It
The summer of 2021 brought a career-defining change. On a road trip visiting home, a friend at OBT suggested Nash audition; the company was transitioning and searching for new dancers. She sent her videos and heard back immediately—they wanted her to start in two weeks. Thrilled at the opportunity to dance closer to family, Nash accepted, making do until she could move the rest of her belongings. Immediately, she felt a strong connection with the company dancers. She danced under interim artistic director Peter Franc for one season before Dani Rowe took the helm in 2023. Under both, she’s felt challenged and supported, performing a variety of corps and featured roles in ballets like George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker, Nicolas Blanc’s At night’s delicious close, and Rowe’s Wooden Dimes. “I think I’ve found my place,” she says.
For Nash, learning Myrtha and understudying Giselle in the 2024–25 season seemed like another turning point. Rowe had already planned to promote her later in the spring, but after that understudy performance, “there was no doubt in my mind she was ready,” she says. Rowe has since cast her as the lead in her 2025 Marilyn, Svetlana in Ben Stevenson’s Dracula, and Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty.
“There are people who enter a cold pool bit by bit. Charlotte jumps in,” Rowe continues. “She puts the draft out and, from there, refines. That’s such an exciting way to work.” On a practical level, Nash says it also helps her build stamina quickly, and it creates room for experimentation.
John-Paul Simoens views Nash as a storyteller with the technique and strength to back it up. “It can be vulnerable to explore characters with another person,” he says. “But with Charlotte, we can open up about anything.”
Owning Her Role
At first, Nash felt that little had changed following her promotion. But while working on Dracula in the fall of 2025, something clicked. “All the people I looked up to here—Carly Wheaton, Jessica Lind, Eva Burton—I see myself in them,” she says. “I realized I had to be that for other people, too. If I show up genuinely as myself, hopefully somebody will see themselves in me.”
While developing roles, she researches and consults fellow dancers. “I take a lot of notes,” she says. “That’s something from my university days. And I listen to the music so it’s in my brain.” With her long limbs and natural fluidity, she says slower, classical roles tend to come most naturally. But Nash, who pulls from her diverse training background daily, wouldn’t silo herself into one category: “I’m a bit of a shape-shifter.” Whether contemporary or classical, she says, “I try to be kind to myself and recognize that I’m not a robot, and humans make mistakes. That’s a really freeing thought.”
Looking Ahead, Giving Back
Nash someday hopes to take on her dream role, Juliet, and work with choreographers like David Dawson and Crystal Pite. Through OBT By Design, the company’s choreographic showcase, Nash also has tried her own hand at dancemaking, and she teaches at the OBT School. As for her post-performance career, Nash is keeping her options open: “There are times when I really want to stay in the dance world. Other times, I see what’s happening in the external world and want to become a leader in some sort of change there.”
Nash, who graduated from OSU in 2022, is considering a master’s in public health. She’s also deeply passionate about the environment; in 2021, she co-founded activist organization Artists Climate Collective with friends and fellow dancers Keaton Leier and Madeline Bez, and she hopes to spearhead sustainability initiatives at OBT. (Rowe says she is a natural leader.) In her spare time, she enjoys hiking and climbing with her longtime partner, Izzy, and their Aussiedoodle, Runa.
Reflecting on her trajectory, Nash encourages dancers to remain as open and curious as possible at all stages of their career. “Trust that you are where you’re supposed to be, in the moment in time and space you’re meant to be.”
The post The Shape-Shifter: Oregon Ballet Theatre’s Charlotte Nash appeared first on Pointe Magazine.