Grete Sofie Borud Nybakken

Grete Sofie Borud Nybakken was appointed Principal Dancer with the Norwegian National Ballet in early 2020 and has since established herself as one of the company's most prominent artists. In recent years, she has performed leading roles in classical ballets such as Romeo and Juliet, Giselle, Manon, La Bayadère and Cinderella. In January 2019, she made her debut in the title role of Swan Lake, becoming the first Norwegian dancer in 15 years to do so.

Borud Nybakken has also performed leading roles in contemporary works including Sir Wayne McGregor's Chroma and Jocasta's Line, Jiří Kylián's One of a Kind, No More Play, Forgotten Land, Symphony of Psalms and Wings of Wax, as well as Stop Motion by Sol León and Paul Lightfoot. She has also performed one of the principal parrts in Glen Tetley's Voluntaries and danced the leading couple in Diamonds from Balanchine's Jewels.

Grete Sofie Borud Nybakken made her title role debut in 2017 with Moum Aune's creation Hedda Gabler, a role she has since danced in the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, among other international ballet houses. She co-created her own choreography in Hedda Gabler, and has received great reviews for her performance. Dance Europe wrote:

From the moment Borud Nybakken appears, the audience is in thrall to her. Her outstanding portrayal is memorable not only for her excellent dancing, but for her chilling interpretation of a woman who is ruthless and selfish. (...) It really is a star turn, one that may be career defining for her.

In 2014 Nybakken made an impact as Regine in Ghosts, the award-winning Ibsen ballet by Moum Aune and Espejord. Ten years later, she followed up with a strong interpretation of the title role in Moum Aune’s third Ibsen ballet, The Wild Duck – a role for which she was nominated for the Hedda Award 2024 in the category Best stage performance – dance. In the summer of 2019 she also danced the role as Solveig in Moum Aune's Peer Gynt at Gålå, for which she received excellent reviews.

Borud Nybakken was the sole recipient of the Tom Wilhelmsen Opera and Ballet Award, Norway's largest of its kind, in 2019. She received the Anders Jahre Award for young artists in 2014, and in 2010, the Dame Ruth Railton Award and the Choreographic Development Award at the Royal Ballet School. In 2008, she reached the finals of the Prix de Lausanne ballet competition in Switzerland and won the Nordic Baltic Ballet Competition in Sweden.

After training at the Norwegian National Ballet School, she was accepted into the Royal Ballet School in London in 2008. She joined the Norwegian National Ballet as an apprentice in 2011 and became a full-time company member in 2014.