Our Team

Sindy is Co-Director, Founder, and Choreographer of Balletto Monson. Known for her innovative, genre-crossing choreographic voice, she brings over three decades of professional experience to the creation and direction of dance and interdisciplinary performance.

Her career began as a freelance dancer working across neo-classical and contemporary repertory, performing with Cork City Ballet, Pendulum Arts Company, White Monkey Trip Dance Theatre, Dance Junction, and Sarah Allen Dancers. In 1995, she premiered her first professional choreography at Sadler’s Wells (Lilian Baylis Theatre), and was soon appointed Resident Choreographer for Pendulum Arts Company.

Choreography has remained central to Sindy’s artistic identity. Recent works include Echo Lines (2025), Pie Jesu (2024), Orion’s Belt (2022), and Seasons (2021). Her choreographic output spans classical, neo-classical, contemporary, musical theatre, mixed-media performance, and screen dance. She has created work for casts ranging from solo performers to ensembles of over 170 dancers, and regularly collaborates with composers, filmmakers, and visual artists to develop layered, interdisciplinary productions.

Sindy’s academic training includes a BA from Middlesex University and postgraduate research at the University of Utah, where she studied under screen dance pioneer Ellen Bromberg and movement scientist Sally S. Fitt. These influences continue to shape her choreographic practice, particularly through the integration of somatic awareness, cinematic composition, and spatial design.

Alongside her creative work, Sindy has held a number of leadership and directorial roles within the dance sector. She founded Ballet Academy Scotland in 2011 and launched the Scottish Youth Ballet Grand Prix in 2015, now known as Ballet Grand Prix. She has created commissioned and repertory works for professional and pre-professional companies and has contributed choreographic projects within conservatoire and higher education settings.

Through Balletto Monson and Contemporary Ballet, Sindy continues to challenge and reimagine ballet’s traditional frameworks, expanding the form artistically, physically, and conceptually through bold, collaborative, and contemporary choreographic practice.

Nicholas Shoesmith is Co-Director and Choreographer of Balletto Monson, where his diverse creative practice spans stage, film, and interdisciplinary collaboration. A former soloist with Scottish Ballet, he brings both performance depth and a choreographic voice defined by musicality, theatricality, and contemporary relevance.

Nicholas trained at The Australian Ballet School, completing a Diploma and Vocational Graduate Certificate in Classical Dance. From 2012 to 2022, he danced with Scottish Ballet, performing works by Helen Pickett, Crystal Pite, David Dawson, Matthew Bourne, Angelin Preljocaj, and Christopher Hampson. He was nominated for the Critics’ Circle National Dance Award for Outstanding Male Classical Performance in 2019 for his role as John Proctor in The Crucible.

As Associate Choreographer of Scottish Ballet, Nicholas has created acclaimed digital works including The Fates (2019), Catalyst (2020), Odyssey (2021), Edinburgh is a Story (2022), Breathless (2024), and Swirl (2021). His stage works include Trifecta (2023), featured at both Scottish Ballet’s Summer Shorts and the Royal Opera House’s Draft Works, and new choreography for the company’s Nutcracker.

Beyond Scottish Ballet, Nicholas’s freelance work includes Insomnia (Ministry of Sound, 2024), The Celtic Story (Celtic FC, 2023), Splat (Victoria State Ballet, 2022), and pieces for the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. He has also created competitive gymnastics routines and film projects nominated by the International Mobile Film Festival.

As a teacher and rehearsal director, Nicholas works with organisations including Victorian State Ballet, The Australian Ballet School, Transit Dance, and Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures. His practice emphasizes collaboration and creativity, fostering a new generation of dance artists through both technical rigour and artistic inquiry.

Benoît Egloff

Artistic Development Lead

Benoît Egloff is Artistic Development Lead at Balletto Monson, where he brings an international performance career and a wide-reaching teaching and choreographic practice to the company’s artistic direction.

Benoît trained at the Paris Opera Ballet School and the Paris Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse. As a student, he performed Balanchine’s Apollo and helped create two significant works—Plastic Mythology by Ashley Page and Light Fandango by Robert North—both of which went on to tour internationally.

He began his professional career at 19 with Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal before joining Ballet Basel, touring across China, Australia, Europe, and North America. His repertoire included Giselle, Coppélia, The Nutcracker, and works by Balanchine, Jiří Kylián, Nacho Duato, Merce Cunningham, William Forsythe, Lucinda Childs, José Limón, Ashley Page, and Robert North, among others.

While dancing with Ballet Basel, Benoît began choreographing for the company and developing a strong interest in artistic creation. After a career-halting injury, he relocated to the UK and established himself as a freelance dance artist, choreographer, and teacher.

Since then, he has taught and staged work for institutions and companies including Scottish Ballet, Dance Base Edinburgh, Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures, and The Royal Ballet School’s Associate and Access programmes. He has also worked extensively with the national Centre for Advanced Training (CAT) scheme. Recent teaching highlights include company classes for Rambert during Peaky Blinders and for New Adventures during the Swan Lake Scottish tour.

Benoît holds the French Diplôme d’État de Professeur de Danse in Classical Ballet and the TQFE (Teaching Qualification in Further Education) from the University of Aberdeen. Since moving to Scotland in 2013, he has contributed significantly to the development of classical ballet training within the country.

Willow Monson

Emerging Choreographer

Willow is an emerging choreographer and dancer with Balletto Monson, where she is undertaking a choreographic placement alongside performing with the Company.

Born in Scotland to English and American parents, Willow began dancing at the age of four. She trained across a range of styles before focusing on classical and contemporary dance. Her expansive, physical movement style is recognised for its dynamic elevation and expressive quality.

She has performed with Scottish Youth Ballet and Allegrodance Touring Company, and graduated from KS Dance (Kate Simmons) with a Trinity Diploma in Professional Dance Performance. Stage highlights include leading roles such as Hermia in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Artemis in Orion’s Belt, the comedic role of a Wicked Sister in Cinderella, and the lead Sylph in Les Sylphides. She has also performed soloist work in The Door and Seasons, appeared in Cry Me a River and the dance film Pie Jesu, and danced at national events including Can You Dance? Super Convention and Move It.

At Contemporary Ballet 2025, Willow was awarded Gold for performance as well as Gold and two Silvers for choreography. She also won the overall choreography prize at Ballet Academy Scotland in 2019, was runner-up at KS Dance in 2022, and has twice received the choreographic prize at the Ballet Grand Prix–Scotland. In 2023, she was selected as a HotHouse Choreographer through a Scottish Ballet and YDance initiative.

Her practice blends expressive performance with choreographic curiosity and a reflective, innovative creative approach.