Nicholas Ziegler is Artistic Coordinator of the Youth Company and Lead Principal Dancer of the Finnish National Ballet.

Mr. Ziegler received his education at the University of Music, Drama and Media in Hannover, and graduated in 1997 from the University of Arts in Munich, Heinz-Bosl-Stiftung.

In 2018, he successfully completed his studies as Professional Teacher at the University of Applied Sciences in Hämeenlinna.

His first professional engagement was with the Semperoper Dresden, from where the journey took Mr. Ziegler to the Finnish National Ballet in 2001. Soon after joining the FNB, he was promoted to dance main roles of the classical repertoire such as Swanlake, Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty, Giselle, La Bayadere and Onegin. He also took great pleasure in performing works by Balanchine, Dawson, Duato, Fonte, Forsythe, Kylian, MacMillan, Naharin, Neumeier, Ratmansky and others.

Throughout his career, Mr. Ziegler was touring Denmark, England, Finland, Italy as well as Japan, Macau, Russia, Singapore and Switzerland.

Nicholas Ziegler received the Pro Dance award in 2004 and the prestigious Edvard Fazer award in 2008.

Alongside his active dancing, Mr Ziegler has lately worked as répétiteur with the Finnish National Ballet on works by Patrice Bart, David Bintley, John Neumeier and Jerome Robbins.

He was also invited as juror to several national and international ballet and dance competitions.

Since the funding of the Youth Company of the Finnish National Ballet in 2013, Nicholas Ziegler is part of the steering group and involved with mentoring and coaching the young artists during their first years as professionals. From season 2019/2020, he took the Youth Company’s lead as Artistic Coordinator.