Katharina Nikelski

German dancer Katharina Nikelski is a First Artist of The Royal Ballet. She joined The Royal Ballet's Aud Jebsen Young Dancers Programme from the start of the 2018/19 Season and was promoted to Artist in 2019 and First Artist in 2023.

Katharina was born in Salzburg, Austria, and began her training at the age of five. She studied at the State Ballet School in Berlin before entering The Royal Ballet Upper School. At the School she won second prize at the 2016 Lynn Seymour Award for Expressive Dance and represented the school at the 2018 Prix de Lausanne Choreographic Project. Roles while at the School included Les Patineurs, Concerto, Swan Lake pas de quatre, See Blue Through, Multiplicity and The Sleeping Beauty in the annual matinees. 

Nikelski’s professional performances while a student included dancing with The Royal Ballet in Manon, Swan Lake, Don Quixote, Romeo and Juliet and in International Draft Works. 

With the Company, her roles include Fairy of the Woodland Glade (The Sleeping Beauty), Mirliton (The Nutcracker), Czárdás (Swan Lake), Esperanza (Like Water for Chocolate) and roles in The Dante Project and Scènes de ballet .