Nana Nakagawa demisoloist

The National Theatre Ballet is pleased to announce that company member Nana Nakagawa was appointed demi-soloist in May 2025. This recognition honours her outstanding dedication, technical precision, and artistic maturity – qualities she fully embodied in her recent performance in the title role of Scheherazade, choreographed by Mauro Bigonzetti.

As Scheherazade, Nana captivated audiences with her powerful charisma, musical sensitivity, and emotional depth. Her performance was compelling, passionate, and finely nuanced – leaving a lasting impression and affirming her potential as a distinctive artistic presence within the company.

Nana Nakagawa was born in Seattle and raised in Japan. She began dancing at the age of four at the Masami Funo Ballet Studio, where she studied until 2020. Her exceptional talent was recognised early – in 2021 she received the Tokyo Governor’s Award for Contemporary Dance and won first prize in classical ballet at the NBA All Japan Ballet Competition. She went on to study at the Ballet School of the New National Theatre in Tokyo, graduating in 2023.

During her studies, she took on a number of prominent roles, including the Black Swan (Swan Lake), the title role in Paquita, and Kitri’s Friend (Don Quixote). As a student, she also performed professionally with the New National Theatre Tokyo in the production NINJA, dancing as both the Japanese Princess and the Evil Sorceress under the artistic direction of Miyako Yoshida and choreography by Kaiji Moriyama.

Nana joined the National Theatre Ballet in Prague as a corps de ballet member in the 2023/2024 season. Her repertoire already includes major and solo roles such as the Sylph in La Sylphide (Johan Kobborg), Bella Figura (Jiří Kylián), Lilac Fairy in The Sleeping Beauty (Márcia Haydée), Mrs. Cratchit and Christmas Fairy in The Nutcracker – A Christmas Story (Youri Vámos), and Prayer in Coppélia (Ronald Hynd). In the neoclassical and contemporary repertoire, she has appeared in Frank Bridge Variations (Hans van Manen), Bill (Sharon Eyal, Gai Behar), Bella Figura and Moving Still (Jiří Kylián), and Sarcasmen (Hans van Manen).

Nana Nakagawa’s promotion to demi-soloist marks another step in her dynamic artistic growth. We look forward to her future performances and wish her continued inspiration and success in her career.

🎭 You can see her on stage soon in Beyond Vibrations!