Nina Menon joined the Royal Winnipeg Ballet after graduating from the Royal Conservatory of The Hague and the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School’s Professional Division. As a member of the corps de ballet, she danced numerous soloist roles and, in 1990, she made her choreographic debut at the Royal Winnipeg Ballet’s choreographic workshop. The success of this ballet and others, plus the commissioning by the Royal Winnipeg Ballet of her popular ballet La Soif, led Artistic Director André Lewis to appoint Nina Menon Resident Choreographer.
Highlights of Menon’s residency include Drunken Butterflies, a ballet choreographed to polish composer Henryk Mikolaj Gorecki. This ballet explores the life of an immigrant family through dance and film. In 1999, she collaborated with Galina Yordanova on the Royal Winnipeg Ballet’s new version of Nutcracker which premiered in Ottawa at the NAC. In the same season, Menon shared with the world her East Indian ancestral roots by creating a ballet to The Gita Govinda. Collaborating with composer Mychael Danna (Felicia’s Journey, Monsoon Wedding, Vanity Fair), Menon’s ballet, The Gitagovinda, told an ancient story from her personal connection with the poem. The sacred poem was passed down to the choreographer by her grandmother.
During her residency, Nina Menon choreographed several ballets for the Professional Division students and taught dance at the Royal Winnipeg Ballet’s Recreational Division. She now lives in Montreal with life partner Mark Godden and their two sons. She teaches ballet at Sheila Parkins Dance Academy and several Montessori schools. In her spare time, she loves to garden.