Matthew Neenan began his dance training at the Boston Ballet School and with noted teachers Nan C. Keating and Jacqueline Cronsberg. He later attended the LaGuardia High School of Performing Arts and the School of American Ballet in New York. From 1994-2007, Matthew danced with the Pennsylvania Ballet where he performed numerous principal roles in the classical, contemporary, and Balanchine repertoire. From 2007-2020, Matthew was named Choreographer in Residence at the Pennsylvania Ballet where he created 20 ballets.
Matthew’s choreography has been featured and performed by The New York City Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, The Washington Ballet, Ballet West, Ballet Met, Colorado Ballet, Ballet Memphis, Milwaukee Ballet, Oregon Ballet Theatre, Tulsa Ballet, OKC Ballet, Kansas City Ballet, BODYTRAFFIC, Juilliard Dance, and USC Kaufman School of Dance, among many others. He has received numerous awards and grants for his choreography, including 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, Matthew received the New York City Ballet’s Choreographic Institute’s Fellowship Initiative Award. In 2008, he received a fellowship from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, marking his fourth time receiving the PCA fellowship. He was also the first recipient of the Jerome Robbins NEW Program Fellowship for his work At the border for Pennsylvania Ballet. In June 2019, he directed the Contemporary Ballet Program at Jacob’s Pillow.
In 2005, Matthew co-founded BalletX with fellow dancer Christine Cox. BalletX had its world premiere at the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival in September 2005. BalletX has toured and performed Neenan’s choreography in New York City at The Joyce Theater, NY City Center, The Skirball Center, Symphony Space, and Central Park Summerstage, as well as nationally at Vail Dance Festival (where he has debuted 5 world premieres ), Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, The Kennedy Center, The Cerritos Center, Laguna Dance Festival, Spring to Dance Festival, and internationally in Cali, Colombia; Seoul, Korea; and Belgrade, Serbia. His ballet The Last Glass was named among The New York Times’ Top 10 in 2013.