Christine Cox co-founded BalletX, Philadelphia’s premier contemporary ballet, with Matthew Neenan in 2005. Under her leadership as Artistic & Executive Director, the BalletX team has produced over 100 world premiere ballets by renowned and emerging choreographers from around the world and toured at prestigious international venues including Vail Dance Festival, The Joyce Theater, The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, New York City Center, and Belgrade Dance Festival.
Throughout her tenure, Cox has committed BalletX to expanding dance’s vocabulary for all audiences, promoting initiatives that make contemporary ballet accessible and welcoming to new audiences. In 2013, she and her team launched The X-Process, an engagement program that invites audience members to participate in pre-show conversations with choreographers and open rehearsals. Through BalletX’s Dance eXchange education program, she has partnered with elementary schools throughout the Philadelphia School District to emphasize dance as a means to promote self-confidence and acquire valuable life skills, reaching more than 2,500 local students. In December 2016, Cox led a TEDx Talk at the George School about innovation in the field of contemporary ballet, from the art form’s historical traditions to today’s world of evolving definitions and globalization. In February 2023, Cox led a discussion with Harvard University’s Harvard Dance Center on leadership in the arts.
Cox has prioritized making both artistic and civic connections as a leader in her Philadelphia community. As an arts leader, she has served on review panels for the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and New Jersey State Council on the Arts. She currently sits on the Advisory Board of the Philadelphia Arts & Business Council, and is a member of the Forum of Executive Women. Christine is the recipient of Avenue of the Art’s 2022 Visionary Award, and has received distinguished fellowships from the Independence Foundation and Pennsylvania Council on the Arts.
Cox was a full-time company member with Pennsylvania Ballet from 1993 until her retirement from the stage in 2006. She trained in classical ballet at the Pennsylvania Ballet School and continued at the Performing Arts School of Philadelphia, spending summer sessions at the Joffrey and San Francisco Ballet schools. Some of her featured roles included Rum and Coca Cola in Paul Taylor’s Company B, Eve in Margo Sappington’s Rodin, Mis En Vie the Cowgirl in Agnes DeMille’s Rodeo, and principal female roles in Jerome Robbins’ Fancy Free and The Concert. During this time, Cox served for ten years as the rehearsal assistant of the children’s corp for Pennsylvania Ballet’s annual production of Balanchine’s The Nutcracker. Prior to joining the Pennsylvania Ballet, she danced with BalletMet (Columbus, OH), as a guest artist with Ballet Hispanico (New York, NY), and with the American Repertory Ballet (Princeton, NJ). Cox is the proud mother of two young boys, Warren and Wesley.
