Nicholas Palmquist

Nicholas Palmquist is an internationally recognized teacher and choreographer based in New York City. As a freelance dancer, his eclectic career spans film, television, and live performance, including In the Heights, Saturday Night Live, The Tonight Show, and the Netflix original series The Get Down. His stage work includes performances with American Dance Machine at The Joyce Theater and the Guggenheim’s Works & Process series. He has appeared at Radio City Music Hall in The Radio City Summer Spectacular starring the Rockettes and returned to Radio City to perform in The Tony Awards, directed by Rob Ashford.

Nicholas’s experience with American Dance Machine — alongside Wayne Cilento, Margo Sappington, and Donna McKechnie — immersed him in the archival lineage of Broadway and jazz dance, cultivating a deep respect for process and history. This grounding both contrasts with and informs his work in contemporary commercial spaces and reflects his American Midwest upbringing. His movement and artistry have been featured in Vogue, Dance Magazine, Dance Teacher Magazine, Tanz Magazine, Vogue México, Numéro China, Nordstrom, the CFDA x Vogue Gala, and New York Fashion Week for Jean Paul Gaultier/Kenzo and Hermès, among others. He partnered Diana Vishneva in Edward Clug’s original work Sleeping Beauty Dreams and has taught for her festival Context in both Moscow and St. Petersburg.

As a choreographer and educator, Nicholas has created world premieres for Semperoper Ballett and Ballet Schwerin in Germany and has led workshops with Staatsballett Berlin and its educational outreach program TANZ IST KLASSE!. While working abroad, he formalized his genre-bending movement language into a method, expanding his pedagogical approach across diverse ages, cultures, and levels of experience.

Nicholas has taught masterclasses and workshops at The Juilliard School, Yale University, New York University, American Ballet Theatre Studio Company, Mozarteum University Salzburg, Universität der Künste Berlin, Palucca University Dresden, The Joffrey Ballet School, Henny Jurriens Foundation (Amsterdam), Jazz Congress Brazil, Monterrey International Ballet Gala, and annually at Orsolina28 in Italy.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, through his Instagram platform @napalmquist, Nicholas raised and coordinated thousands of dollars to support relationships between dance spaces, artists, and patrons. Teaching online and alone from the studios of Broadway Dance Center in Times Square challenged and reaffirmed his commitment to accessible, high-quality dance education. His focus on artistry, education, and access continues to be supported by social media, and he remains grateful and curious to be creating as an artist of his generation.

His work and teaching can also be experienced through the online platform Dance Masterclass.