When words become noise, the language of the body cuts through

Jennifer Nichols (she/her) is a Canadian choreographer, director and dancer with a portfolio of over 20 years of work for the stage and screen.

PHOTOS: TD FOTO, KAROLINA KURAS

About Jennifer Nichols

For stage, Jennifer holds extensive choreography and performance credits, including the Dora Award Nominated Pandora (FAWN Chamber Creative), Seven Deadly Sins (Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Oregon Summer Music Festival), Dora Award Winner Messiah (Against the Grain Theatre), Sweat (Bicycle Opera), L’Histoire du Soldat (Toronto Summer Music Festival), Lilt (Esprit Orchestra), Sewing the Earthworm (The Canadian Art Song Project), Synesthesia IV (FAWN Chamber Creative), The Mystical Soul (The Art Gallery of Ontario), La Belle Helene (The Glenn Gould School) and Die Fledermaus (Opera 5). She was also commissioned as director of Hausmusik-Traverseé for Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra and has Assistant Director credits with the Canadian Opera Company.

Frequently in demand for movement work in opera, art song and choral music…

both for singers and trained dancers alike, Jennifer is known for giving performers of all backgrounds agency and confidence to speak with their bodies.

‘Nichols creates a world populated by dancers and amateurs alike, graceful and empowered whether they’re in dancing shoes or not…’ __ Leslie Barcza

For television and film, Jennifer holds Head Choreographer and Dance/Script consultant credits for the Netflix series Tiny Pretty Things. She was choreographer for all four seasons of Reign (CW), cementing her reputation as a specialist in historical dance.

Other key credits include Titans (DC Universe), Matlock (CBS), Law&Order Criminal Intent (Amazon), Frankie Drake (CBC), Salvation (CBS), Mary Kills People (Global TV), Reacher (Amazon), Hudson & Rex (CBC), Davey & Jonesie’s Locker (Amazon) and the feature film Barney’s Version (Serendipity Point Films).

Her feature film directorial debut, Sweat (Bicycle Opera), premiered at the Kingston Canadian Film Festival. It received Opera America’s award for Digital Excellence in Artistic Creation (2024) and Best Narrative Feature at the L.A. Independent Women Film Awards (2023). Celebrated director Atom Egoyan calls it ‘An extraordinary film. Made with care and bravura and full of rich emotion.’

Jennifer draws on her extensive choreographic background for her work as a television and film director. An exciting new directorial voice, her style is known for its dynamic energy, a dance between the camera and its subject.

In addition to performance, Jennifer is a leader and educator in the worlds of fitness and sport.  Her renowned ballet fitness program, The Extension Method™ is followed by professional and amateur movers worldwide.  She coaches and conditions dancers, circus artists and elite athletes in synchronized swimming and figure skating. 

PHOTO: PATRICK HAGARTY

FILM & TV REEL

PHOTO: BRAD WETHERLY

  • "Jennifer was a key member of our creative team, overseeing all aspects of dance in what was arguably television's most ambitious dance series ever. From casting to coaching, and from choreography to scheduling, Jennifer ensured that the calibre of dance was always top-notch. She drew on a range of talents to deliver an array of thrilling sequences every episode. Jenn has a rare ability to both work within the production demands of our industry, while also empowering dancers to deliver their best. In my experience, there’s no one better.”

    - Michael MacLennan; Executive Producer and Showrunner, Tiny Pretty Things- NETFLIX

  • ‘Jennifer’s contribution to ‘Reign’ was invaluable. With court dance featuring heavily throughout the series, her choreography added beauty, emotion and intrigue to the story. She has a tremendous eye for crafting movement on camera and making actors look their best in motion.’

    - Laurie McCarthy, Creator/Showrunner, REIGN- CW Network

  • "Working in conjunction with Ivany, choreographer Jennifer Nichols has added a sinewy, sensuous layer of physicality, an overarching passion play, part modern dance, part Baroque posture."

    - Ian Ritchie, Opera Going Toronto, Against the Grain Theatre- ‘Messiah’ 

  • "This film fires on all pistons — a thrilling, masterfully crafted union of opera and dance.”

    - Michael Maclennan, Creator/Showrunner, Tiny Pretty Things, Bomb Girls; writer, Queer as Folk

  • "And I’d be remiss if I don’t give my strongest kudos to Jennifer Nichols, who was simply amazing as the dancer and choreographer."

    - Joseph So, MUSICAL TORONTO-  Toronto Symphony Orchestra- Seven Deadly Sins

  • “An extraordinary film. Made with care and bravura and full of rich emotion.”

    - Atom Egoyan

  • "Working with Jennifer was a complete pleasure. Not only did she bring a clear and exciting creative vision to our project, but she also managed the complex process with calm assurance, excellent communication, and a joyful, infectious enthusiasm.”

    - Vivian Moens, Operations Manager, Exultate Chamber Singers

  • "Choreographer Jennifer Nichols’ sensuous fusion of classical ballet and modern dance, vibrantly accented with fluid gesture, lends an air of engaging intensity to Ivany’s universalized faith quest. Highly syncopated when applied to chorus, more idiosyncratic in the case of soloists, singers fling Handel’s music into the air, tracing its exquisitely lush lines of melody with hands and bodies, oscillating, vibrating, acute emotion unleashed. Nichols’ work, startling and raw in AtG’s first staging of Messiah, two years later has blossomed into an assured, polished style."

    - OPERA GOING TORONTO- Against the Grain Theatre- Messiah (2015), Choreographer

  • "Stepping out of her capacity as choreographer into dancing slippers, Jennifer Nichols embodies all the vulnerability and pathos of Anna II, sensuous, almost ethereal. There is a vague aura of earthly piety surrounding her relentlessly persecuted character, an innocent agnus dei who assumes the sins of the world and by doing so, removes them. Perhaps it is the purity of her line, perhaps it is her grace, somehow Nichols embodies an almost angelic presence on stage. Anna II’s near total physical and emotional destruction at the hands of all who abuse her becomes a tragic coda."

    - OPERA GOING TORONTO-  Toronto Symphony Orchestra- Seven Deadly Sins (choreographer & dancer)

  • "To see a group of male singer actors so proficiently engaged in intricate patterns of contemporary dance is extraordinary. Wickedly ironic, darkly visionary, The Seven Deadly Sins is a sinfully rich experience, musical theatre of sheer perfection, supremely satisfying, thoroughly delectable."

    - Ian Ritchie, OPERA GOING TORONTO-  Toronto Symphony Orchestra- Seven Deadly Sins (choreographer & dancer)

  • ‘Jennifer’s contribution to ‘Reign’ was invaluable. With court dance featuring heavily throughout the series, her choreography added beauty, emotion and intrigue to the story. She has a tremendous eye for crafting movement on camera and making actors look their best in motion.’

    - Laurie McCarthy, Creator/Showrunner, REIGN- CW Network

  • "Working with Jennifer was a complete pleasure. Not only did she bring a clear and exciting creative vision to our project, but she also managed the complex process with calm assurance, excellent communication, and a joyful, infectious enthusiasm.”

    - Vivian Moens, Operations Manager, Exultate Chamber Singers

  • "This film fires on all pistons — a thrilling, masterfully crafted union of opera and dance.”

    - Michael Maclennan, Creator/Showrunner, Tiny Pretty Things, Bomb Girls; writer, Queer as Folk

  • “An extraordinary film. Made with care and bravura and full of rich emotion.”

    - Atom Egoyan

  • "Jennifer was a key member of our creative team, overseeing all aspects of dance in what was arguably television's most ambitious dance series ever. From casting to coaching, and from choreography to scheduling, Jennifer ensured that the calibre of dance was always top-notch. She drew on a range of talents to deliver an array of thrilling sequences every episode. Jenn has a rare ability to both work within the production demands of our industry, while also empowering dancers to deliver their best. In my experience, there’s no one better.”

    - Michael MacLennan; Executive Producer and Showrunner, Tiny Pretty Things- NETFLIX

  • "Choreographer Jennifer Nichols’ sensuous fusion of classical ballet and modern dance, vibrantly accented with fluid gesture, lends an air of engaging intensity to Ivany’s universalized faith quest. Highly syncopated when applied to chorus, more idiosyncratic in the case of soloists, singers fling Handel’s music into the air, tracing its exquisitely lush lines of melody with hands and bodies, oscillating, vibrating, acute emotion unleashed. Nichols’ work, startling and raw in AtG’s first staging of Messiah, two years later has blossomed into an assured, polished style."

    - OPERA GOING TORONTO- Against the Grain Theatre- Messiah (2015), Choreographer

  • "And I’d be remiss if I don’t give my strongest kudos to Jennifer Nichols, who was simply amazing as the dancer and choreographer."

    - Joseph So, MUSICAL TORONTO-  Toronto Symphony Orchestra- Seven Deadly Sins

  • "Stepping out of her capacity as choreographer into dancing slippers, Jennifer Nichols embodies all the vulnerability and pathos of Anna II, sensuous, almost ethereal. There is a vague aura of earthly piety surrounding her relentlessly persecuted character, an innocent agnus dei who assumes the sins of the world and by doing so, removes them. Perhaps it is the purity of her line, perhaps it is her grace, somehow Nichols embodies an almost angelic presence on stage. Anna II’s near total physical and emotional destruction at the hands of all who abuse her becomes a tragic coda."

    - OPERA GOING TORONTO-  Toronto Symphony Orchestra- Seven Deadly Sins (choreographer & dancer)

  • "To see a group of male singer actors so proficiently engaged in intricate patterns of contemporary dance is extraordinary. Wickedly ironic, darkly visionary, The Seven Deadly Sins is a sinfully rich experience, musical theatre of sheer perfection, supremely satisfying, thoroughly delectable."

    - Ian Ritchie, OPERA GOING TORONTO-  Toronto Symphony Orchestra- Seven Deadly Sins (choreographer & dancer)

Jennifer is also the founder and director of the renowned ballet fitness and wellness program, The Extension Method™, founded in 2003. The first of its kind in Canada, the program offers a balanced, safe approach to dance conditioning with a focus on posture, alignment, strength and flexibility.

Jennifer has been Co-Artistic Director of Hit & Run Dance Productions for 20+ years, a company that uses dance to entertain, inspire, to share and inform. Some of their expansive client list include MAC Cosmetics, Chanel, NIKE, TIFF, Porsche, The Rolling Stones and more!

See articles and features

PRESS & MEDIA

Media
Blog Post Title Three

The TSO Presents a Seamless Seven Deadly Sins
THE WHOLE NOTE, 2017

READ HERE ➔

Media item 7

The Dangers of Dancing Barefoot: One Dancer's Extreme Story & Tips for Safety
DANCE MAGAZINE, 2018

READ HERE ➔

Media item 6 (Copy)

Workin’ It Out, Theatre Dancers Piroutte Into Fitness Gurus
ENCORE MONTHLY, MAR/APR, 2021

READ HERE ➔

Media item 10

A Must-Watch: Sweat On-Screen
SCHMOPERA, 2024

READ HERE ➔

Media item 8

Jennifer Nichols “We are somehow more connected than ever”
LUDWIG VAN, 2020

READ HERE ➔

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