Matthew Neenan

Matthew Neenan, described as “one of America’s best dance poets” by The New York Times, began his dance training at the Boston Ballet School and with noted teachers Nan C. Keating and Jacqueline Cronsberg. He later attended LaGuardia High School of Performing Arts and the School of American Ballet in New York. From 1994-2007, Neenan danced with the Pennsylvania Ballet (now Philadelphia Ballet) where he performed numerous principal roles in the classical, contemporary, and Balanchine repertoire. From 2007–2020, Neenan served as Choreographer in Residence, creating 20 original ballets.

Neenan’s choreography has been performed by New York City Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, The Washington Ballet, Ballet West, Smuin Contemporary Ballet, Ballet Met, Colorado Ballet, Ballet Memphis, Milwaukee Ballet, Oregon Ballet Theatre, Tulsa Ballet, Kansas City Ballet, Nashville Ballet, Parsons Dance, BODYTRAFFIC, Juilliard Dance, and USC Kaufman School of Dance, among many others. He has received numerous awards and grants for his choreography from the National Endowment of the Arts, Dance Advance funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts, the Choo San Goh Foundation, the Independence Foundation, and four fellowships from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. In 2006, Neenan received New York City Ballet’s Choreographic Institute’s Fellowship Initiative Award. In October 2009, he was the grand-prize winner of Sacramento Ballet’s Capital Choreography Competition and was also the first recipient of the Jerome Robbins NEW Program Fellowship for his work At the border for Pennsylvania Ballet. In 2019, he directed the Contemporary Ballet Program at Jacob’s Pillow.

In 2005, Neenan co-founded BalletX with fellow dancer Christine Cox. BalletX has toured and performed Neenan’s choreography at The Joyce Theater, New York City Center, The Skirball Center, Symphony Space, SummerStage in Central Park, The Kennedy Center, Vail International Dance Festival (where he has created five world premieres), Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Segerstrom Center for the Arts, Laguna Dance Festival, Spring to Dance Festival in St. Louis, and several international internationally. His ballet The Last Glass was on The New York Times Top 10 list in 2013.