Matthew Neenan began his dance training at the Boston Ballet School and later attended the LaGuardia High School of Performing Arts and the School of American Ballet in New York.  From 1994-2007, Neenan danced with the Pennsylvania Ballet where he performed numerous principal roles in works by George Balanchine, John Cranko, Paul Taylor, Peter Martins, Val Caniparoli, Jorma Elo, Lila York, Meredith Rainey, Jeffrey Gribler, Christopher Wheeldon and Jerome Robbins. In October 2007, Neenan was named choreographer-in-residence at the Pennsylvania Ballet.

Neenan’s choreography has been featured by the Pennsylvania Ballet (totaling nine commissions), The Washington Ballet, Juilliard Dance Ensemble, New York City Ballet’s Choreographic Institute, Sacramento Ballet, Indiana University, BalletX, Phrenic New Ballet, Opera Company of Philadelphia and LaGuardia High School of Performing Arts (NYC), among 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, and the Independence Foundation.  In 2006, Neenan received the New York City Ballet’s Choreographic Institute’s Fellowship Initiative Award. Neenan received a 2008 fellowship from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts.  This marks his fourth time receiving the PCA fellowship.  In October 2009, Matthew 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.  For the fall of 2010, Neenan will create world premieres for Colorado Ballet and Julliard.

In 2005, Neenan co-founded BalletX with fellow dancer Christine Cox.  BalletX had its world premiere at the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival in September 2005 and is now the resident dance company at the prestigious Wilma Theatre. BalletX has toured and performed Neenan’s choreography in New York City at The Skirball Center and Symphony Space, Jacob’s Pillow Festival, Laguna Dance Festival, Spring to Dance Festival in St.Louis, California, Colombia, and Seoul, Korea.

Neenan was recently named Best Dance Talent by the editors of Philadelphia Magazine’s annual “Best of Philly” list.

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