Her career as a dancer began as a pupil of Marie Rambert and she also studied in Paris where she danced in early performances of Léonide Massine's Les Présages.
[6][7] It was based on an episode in Alain Fournier's novel Le Grand Meaulnes, with a significantly adapted libretto by Ronald Crichton, who also chose the six piano pieces and songs used in the score (orchestrated by Guy Warrack).
[11] In 1938, she was one of the founding members of Antony Tudor's London Ballet along with Hugh Laing, Agnes de Mille, Peggy van Praagh, Maude Lloyd and Walter Gore.
With the onset of World War II, in 1940 was invited with them to New York, joining Richard Pleasant's and Lucia Chase's reorganised Ballet Theater.
In 1946, Mardi gras featured Nadia Nerina's first created role, dancing alongside John Cranko, Kenneth MacMillan and Peter Darrell.
The dancers were Gerd Larsen, Alexander Grant, Gordon Hamilton, Elaine Fifield, Michael Boulton, Michael Bayston, Jeanne Artois, Peter Wright, Moyra Fraser, Leila Russell[14] Also in 1948, Sadler's Wells Theatre Ballet premiered Selina, choreographed to the music of Rossini by Howard, with scenario and design by Peter Williams, conducted by Guy Warrack.
It was based on the novel A Mirror for Witches by Esther Forbes, and consisted of a prologue and five scenes, with music by Denis ApIvor and set design by Norman Adams RA.