Niall McMahon
From an Irish family background and based in Yorkshire England, Niall is a former professional dancer with Scottish Ballet and artistic director of New English Contemporary Ballet. Following graduation from the Rambert School, London he spent 5 years with Scotland's national ballet company during which time he toured throughout the UK, also completing many successful international tours across Europe, Australia and the USA. He suffered a serious spinal injury causing a change of performance track, shows in Monte Carlo the opening the 100 Year Anniversary Show at the Moulin Rouge, Paris and the resident Kayagum Theatre, Seoul, South Korea all followed.
Upon returning to the UK he then embarked on a highly successful career as a ballet teacher, technique and artistic coach, also guest ballet master, enjoying significant guesting opportunities with companies including Scottish Ballet, Northern Ballet, Phoenix Dance, Iceland Dance Company, also Phantom of the Opera’s UK touring production. Between 2005 - 2009 he created New English Contemporary Ballet, a touring company, certainly in UK terms, which was both groundbreaking and artistically much more aligned to many mainstream European dance companies. He collaborated closely with choreographers including Richard Wherlock, Davide Bombana, Patrick Delcroix, Derek Williams and Sharon Watson, he developed a company repertoire focused equally on creating new works in the contemporary ballet style and as such previously unrepresented in the UK.
As specialist ballet coach, he has developed dancers with the Royal Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet, English National Ballet, Scottish Ballet, Northern Ballet, New Adventures, Akram Khan Company, National Dance Company Wales, Ballet Cymru, Phoenix Dance, also many West End shows and International Cabaret.
As both pre-vocational and vocational ballet coach, he has extensively prepared and coached dancers for every major national dance school, academy and college across the UK. For international competition he has coached dancers for the Prix de Lausanne finals, multiple medalists of the Adeline Genée Awards and winners of Young British Dancer of the Year. Having previously adjucated the All England Dance finals, London, he is currently a world finals judge for the Dance World Cup (DWC), also adjudicating many of its international regional and country qualifiers.
He has taught for many of the leading vocational schools in the UK including the Royal Ballet School, Elmhurst Ballet School, The Brighton Academy, Hammond, Dance School of Scotland, Northern School of Contemporary Dance, LIPA. He regularly teaches masterclasses for international dance competitions, also many schools and colleges across Europe and Asia, working mainly with aspiring classical students, whilst supporting pre-vocational training.
He has worked extensively with the Royal Academy of Dance, ISTD and BBO Dance, having served for many years as a board member of the latter. In the capacity of Vocational Panel Assessor for the Council for Dance, Drama and Musical Theatre (CDMT) he has accredited full-time courses in Dance and Musical Theatre at ArtsEd London, Urdang Academy and Laine Theatre Arts. Having enjoyed a highly successful performance, teaching and directorship career spanning some 4 decades, he maintains his strong professional links across the global dance industry, continually working to develop training and performance opportunities for young aspiring dancers through his work with Dance World Cup. It is for DWC he holds the post of co-Director and Ballet Master of the DWC Contemporary Ballet Company in association with Richard Wherlock.