Matthew Neenan, described as “one of America’s best dance poets” by The New York Times, began training at the Boston Ballet School with Nan C. Keating and Jacqueline Cronsberg. He attended the LaGuardia High School of Performing Arts and the School of American Ballet in New York. From 1994 to 2007, Neenan danced with the Pennsylvania Ballet, performing numerous principal roles in the classical, contemporary, and Balanchine repertoire. From 2007 to 2020, he was the Choreographer in Residence at the Pennsylvania Ballet, where he created 20 original ballets. His choreography has premiered with New York City Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Washington Ballet, Ballet West, Ballet Met, Colorado Ballet, Ballet Memphis, Milwaukee Ballet, Oregon Ballet Theatre, Tulsa Ballet, OKC 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 from National Endowment of the Arts, Dance Advance funded by Pew Charitable Trusts, Choo San Goh Foundation, and Independence Foundation, as well as four fellowships from Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. In 2006, he received the New York City Ballet’s Choreographic Institute’s Fellowship Initiative Award. In 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 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, Central Park Summerstage, The Kennedy Center, Vail International Dance Festival (where he has created five world premieres), Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Segerstrom Center, Laguna Dance Festival, and Spring to Dance Festival in St. Louis, as well as several venues internationally.
