Matthew Neenan, described as “one of America’s best dance poets” by The New York Times, began his training at the Boston Ballet School 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 to 2007, Neenan danced with the Pennsylvania Ballet, now the Philadelphia Ballet, performing numerous principal roles in the classical, contemporary, and Balanchine repertoire. From 2007 to 2020, he was the Choreographer in Residence where he created 20 original ballets. His choreography has premiered with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, New York City Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Ballet West, The Washington Ballet, Ballet Met, Colorado Ballet, Dance Aspen, Ballet Memphis, Milwaukee Ballet, Oregon Ballet Theatre, Tulsa Ballet, Kansas City Ballet, Nashville Ballet, Parsons Dance, BODYTRAFFIC, Smuin Contemporary Ballet, Opera Philadelphia, Juilliard Dance, USC Kaufman School of Dance, and The Vail International Dance Festival where he has created 5 original premieres. He has received numerous awards and grants from National Endowment of the Arts, Dance Advance funded by Pew Charitable Trusts, The 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 and was also the first recipient of the Jerome Robbins NEW Program Fellowship for his work At the border for Pennsylvania Ballet in 2009. 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 , Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Segerstrom Center, Laguna Dance Festival, and Spring to Dance Festival in St. Louis, as well as several venues internationally. His work “The Last Glass” for BalletX was in The New York Times Top 10 best of 2013. For the 24-25 season, Matthew was The Hearst Choreographer In Residence at Princeton University.
