Denise Nix (Thompson)

Dance Theatre of Harlem (1975-1981)

Denise Pamela Nix was born ca. 1958 to Mr. and Mrs. Theophilus R. Nix. After starting tap and acrobatic dancing at age five, Nix began her ballet training when she was 11 years old at the School of Pennsylvania Ballet. She attended Wilmington Friends School in Wilmington, Delaware. Nix started choreographing early in her training, creating works for a Temple University Music Department performance Amahl and the Night Visitors and a solo at the Friends School in her hometown. 

In 1975 at age 16, she received an apprenticeship with Dance Theatre of Harlem, where she progressed to dancing soloist roles such as a Big Swan in Swan Lake and the Dark Angel in Serenade for Strings as well as those in Geoffrey Holder’s Dougla and Louis Johnson’s Forces of Rhythm. While a member of the company, Nix studied at New York University. Nix worked at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, JPMorgan Chase, and is currently a nonprofit consultant. She has a BA and MA from NYU and an MBA from Harvard Business School. She was named one of Seventeen magazine’s “Superteens” in the January 1975 issue. 

Sources:

Miss Nix: ‘Superteen’, The News Journal
Harlem Ballet Picks Miss Nix, The News Journal
‘Doin’ It’ Dancers Create a Winner, The News Journal

Social media:

LinkedIn Denise Nix Thompson