Born in Perth, Natalie began her dance training with Explosive Jazz and Theatrical Dance Company and later Academy of Ballet and Performance. She was accepted into the specialist dance program at John Curtin College of Arts in 2001 where she performed with STEPS Youth Dance Company as well as leading local and national dance choreographers. In 2006 Natalie was the recipient of the Steps Youth Dance Scholarship, which contributed towards a trip to Los Angeles, USA to ‘Dance Excellence’, an invitational, international festival. She continued her dance training at Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA), completing an Advanced Diploma in dance. During her second year of study Natalie successfully applied for exchange to Taipei National University of the Arts, Taiwan. This rich experience enabled her to learn traditional Chinese forms of Tai Chi, Kung Fu and Chinese Opera.
In 2008 Natalie performed in Gary Stewart’s Birdbrain, remounted by Anton. Her own choreography featured in WAAPA’s third year Dance Students’ public performance at Perth Institute of Contemporary Art. Strut Dance Inc, Short Cuts saw her perform in Claudia Alessi and Cass Mortimer-Eipper works. She performed in the Australian Institute of Classical Dance, Dance Creation 2008 in Melbourne, in Timothy O’Donnell’s Door Number One and Kim McCarthy’s Sum of One, Nacho Duato’s Jardi Tancat, re-staged by Kim McCarthy as the soloist and in Sue Healey’s Not Entirely Human. For these critically acclaimed performances, Natalie was named Most Outstanding Dancer and Dancer to Watch in the Dance Australia 2008 critics’ review. The year culminated in Natalie being awarded the WAAPA Inaugural Hawaiian Award for Dance, for the most outstanding graduate.
2009 she started dancing professionally for Adelaide based company, Leigh Warren and Dancers where she performed in Leigh Warren’s Seven. The show toured to regional New South Wales centres in Queanbeyan, Wagga Wagga and to Sydney. In November, Natalie performed at the Holland Dance Festival, for a celebration of 50 years of Netherlands Dance. She performed Impulse and Shimmer choreographed by Leigh Warren, accompanied by the Adelaide based String ensemble, ‘Zephyr Quartet’. In December 2009; Natalie worked with dancer Richard Cilli to begin the initial development of two dance works created by Paea Leech and Melaine Lane.
