Nicola danced professionally with English National Ballet before joining English National Opera as Head of Movement and Dance (1980 – 1998) In this capacity she choreographed over 40 productions.
Since 1998 she has pursued a freelance career as Director and Choreographer working at New York City Opera, Florida Grand Opera, Glimmerglass Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Washington National Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Dallas Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Virginia Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Seattle Opera, Portland Opera, Eugene Opera, Arizona Opera, San Diego Opera, Graz Oper, Oper Bonn, Semper Oper Dresden, Bavarian State Opera Munich, Grand Opera Geneve, Scottish Opera, Korean National Opera, National Center for the Performing Arts, Beijing, Teatro Real Madrid, Sao Carlos Opera Lisbon, Opera Zuid Maastrict, San Francisco Opera Merola program, Opera McGill Montreal, USC, Cal State Long Beach & Chapman university and the Royal College of Music, London.. In Fall 2017 she launched a Period Etiquette Master class series at UCLA entitled “Dance, Dress and Decorum 1550 – 1910” which she has regularly presented at Metropolitan Opera, Lindemann program, San Francisco Adler & Merola program, Atelier Lyrique L’Opera Montreal, Minnesota Opera, Portland Opera, CCM, NEC, UNT & Yale.
