Vale Audrey Nicholls OAM FRAD ARAD
Australian ballet has lost one of its great keepers of classical tradition, generosity and memory. Audrey Nicholls OAM FRAD ARAD, passed away on 30 June 2026 after a long and courageous illness. She was 92.
For more than seven decades, Nicholls gave herself to ballet as dancer, teacher, examiner, mentor and guardian of the art form’s deepest values. Her life traced a remarkable span of Australian dance history: from Townsville to London, from Borovansky to Ballet Rambert, from early television to The Australian Ballet stage, and from the studio to the examination room, where generations of young dancers and teachers came under her guidance.
Born in Townsville, Queensland, Nicholls began dancing as a child and joined the Borovansky Ballet as a teenager. In 1951, after winning the inaugural Frances Scully Memorial Scholarship, she travelled to London to further her training. There she joined Ballet Rambert, rising to Principal Dancer, before returning to Australia and rejoining the Borovansky Ballet as a Leading Soloist. She later danced as Principal Guest Artist with Ballet Guild, later Ballet Victoria.
In her own recollections for RAD Australia at the Kathleen Gorham Awards in 2023, she looked back on that Borovansky period with striking immediacy, describing herself as “just 16 years old, one of the ‘baby ballerinas’.” She remembered being among the “first ones to arrive” and the “last ones to leave”, spending long hours at a makeshift barre at the side of the stage. When she shared that writing, she also gave me a beautiful photograph of members of the Borovansky company (Featured above, Kathleen Gorham included, and the photo charmingly marked in ballpoint pen). It was used professionally at the time, but I cherish it personally to this day: a generous piece of the world she knew so intimately, and one more example of the care with which she passed that history on.
Her life on stage was marked by roles that required both fine classical technique and genuine dramatic instinct- she danced the title role in Giselle, Swanilda in Coppélia, and Lola in Jack Carter’s The Life and Death of Lola Montez, and created the role of Flame Lady in John Cranko’s Variations on a Theme. She also performed for the Queen Mother at a Royal Command Performance, dancing the Polka from Façade and Birdcage in Michael Charnley’s Movimientos. It was the breadth of that repertoire that said so much about her: the ballerina, the character artist, the musician, the storyteller.
Nicholls also belonged to an important generation of artists who carried ballet into Australian homes through television. From the late 1950s through the 1960s she worked with HSV7 and ABC television. For audiences who may never have sat in an opera house or theatre, she was part of the first encounter with ballet: musical, exacting, and alive to the camera.
Her influence as a teacher was equally profound. With fellow dancer Eve King, she ran her successful full-time ballet school in Melbourne for 40 years, working closely with senior staff teacher Martin Rubinstein, who was also a dear friend for the extent of his life. The school became one of the places where her performing knowledge found a second life: in corrections, classes, exam preparation, conversations, standards, and the daily discipline of helping young dancers understand what classical training could ask of them, and what it could give.
Her service to the Royal Academy of Dance was one of the defining commitments of her life, at least publicly. Appointed a Graded Examiner in 1973, she examined for 33 years, taught RAD courses and classes throughout Australia, and became a trusted mentor to new and established teachers. She was appointed a Tutor for the Academy’s teaching programmes in 1997, became a Life Member and ambassador, and in 2011 was awarded the Fellowship of the Royal Academy of Dance. She was also Patron of the RAD Victoria Tasmania Panel.
In 2013, Ms Nicholls - as many thousands of young dancers would greet her in an exam room - was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia for service to the performing arts, particularly ballet.
Remarkably, her performance career continued long after many artists would have stepped away from the stage. As a guest artist with The Australian Ballet, she appeared in works including Graeme Murphy’s Nutcracker – The Story of Clara and Swan Lake, Erik Bruhn’s La Sylphide, Stephen Baynes’ Raymonda and Sir Peter Wright’s The Nutcracker. Her appearances were treasured not simply as cameos, but as living links to the lineage of Australian ballet. Every time she stepped on to the stage she was always acknowledged by a knowing an adoring audience.
Those who knew her speak of her elegance, her composure, her humour and her astonishing memory for people, productions and dance history. She belonged to the rare group of artists who could carry a room’s attention without demanding it. Her authority came through care, standards and the grace with which she held herself.
In a poignant coincidence, RAD Australia announced today that entries had opened for the 2026 Audrey Nicholls Awards. That the award bearing her name should be calling young dancers forward at the very moment the dance community is saying goodbye feels deeply fitting. It speaks to the shape of her legacy: the roles, honours and histories, yes, and the young artists and teachers she helped send forward with surer feet, broader knowledge and a deeper love of ballet.
In a 2012 interview with Dance Informa, she was asked how she would like to be remembered. Her answer was modest and unmistakably hers: “Fondly – I hope! But also for my lifelong love of dance and my devotion to my husband David and my family.”
She will indeed be remembered fondly, and with far more than fondness. She will be remembered with gratitude by the students she encouraged, the teachers she mentored, the colleagues she stood beside, the audiences she moved, and the Australian ballet community whose history she helped make.
This tribute is written not only from professional respect, but with personal gratitude: I had the pleasure of meeting Audrey on several occasions, including at her namesake awards in Melbourne, and saw first-hand the warmth, dignity and generosity for which she is so deeply honoured.
Dance Australia extends deepest sympathies to Audrey’s family, friends, former students, colleagues, and the many members of the RAD and wider dance community who loved and admired her.
Today we stand for her curtain call.
-Olivia Weeks
We are thankful to the additional insights into her life and work in a 2012 interview by Brian Nolan for Dance Informa.