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Christine Cox co-founded BalletX with Matthew Neenan in 2005. Under her leadership as Artistic & Executive Director, the BalletX team has produced 140 world premiere ballets by nearly 80 renowned and emerging choreographers from around the world. Throughout her tenure, Cox has committed BalletX to expanding dance’s vocabulary for all audiences, promoting initiatives that make contemporary ballet accessible and welcoming. In 2015 she launched BalletX’s community Pop Up program with funding from the Knight Foundation, bringing free performances to neighborhoods across Philadelphia. 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 3,500 local students. In December 2016 Cox led a TEDx Talk at the George School about innovation in the field of contemporary ballet, and in February 2023 Cox led a discussion with Harvard University’s Harvard Dance Center on leadership in the arts. Cox is a member of the Forum of Executive Women and a recipient of Avenue of the Arts’ 2022 Visionary Award, and has received distinguished fellowships from the Independence Foundation and Pennsylvania Council on the Arts.

Tara Keating began her training at the Pioneer Valley Ballet in Northampton, MA. She then attended The Juilliard School, under the direction of Benjamin Harkarvy, where she received a BFA in Dance. While there, she was awarded the Jerome L. Greene Fellowship and the Most Outstanding Dance Major by the National Dance Association. She danced professionally with American Repertory Ballet, “Tharp!” and as a soloist with the Pennsylvania Ballet. In 2005 she became a founding member of BalletX, and was named Associate Artistic Director in 2014.

Keelan Whitmore a native of Rockford, IL, trained at Rockford Dance Company, Joffrey Ballet School/New School University, Interlochen Arts Academy, and St. Mary's College, where he received his BA in Dance. He danced with Kansas City Ballet, The Suzanne Farrell Ballet, Alonzo King LINES Ballet, and as a soloist with Tanz Theater Münster, where he was awarded 2019 Outstanding Artist by the Gesellschaft der Musik-und Theaterfreunde. In 2006 he co-founded the Kansas City-based multidisciplinary ensemble Quixotic Fusion. In 2023 he joined BalletX as the company’s first Rehearsal Director & Community Liaison.

Gary Sheldon, Guest Conductor, returns to the Kennedy Center following acclaimed performances conducting for San Francisco Ballet (Giselle) and Miami City Ballet (Nutcracker). He is currently in his 15th season as music director and principal conductor for Miami City Ballet. Previous conducting positions include the Atlanta Ballet, BalletMet Columbus, and San Francisco Ballet. In 2010, Sheldon captured the first American Prize for Orchestral Conducting for recorded performances of Beethoven's sixth symphony and William Bolcom's Clarinet Concerto with soloist Richard Stoltzman and the Lancaster Festival Orchestra, heard on the Marquis Classics label. He is also recipient of the Bill Graham Memorial Award for Distinguished Service in the Arts, recognizing his dedication to community outreach and education as music director of the Marin Symphony in California. Three of Sheldon's own compositions have been widely performed. Two, commissions from BalletMet—Cole, based on the music of Cole Porter, and Butterfly, based on the music of Puccini—and the third, The Source, a commission from Miami City Ballet, choreographed by Claudia Schreier, based on the music of Julius Eastman, a score which garnered Sheldon recognition as a finalist for the American Prize in Composition.

Pianist Dr . Amanda Halstead is an active soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral pianist in the Washington DC area. She performs frequently with several ensembles including the National Symphony, the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra, the Washington Master Chorale, the Maryland Symphony Orchestra, and the Virginia Symphony Orchestra. As soloist, she has performed on series such as the Millennium Stage at the Kennedy Center, Church of the Epiphany Concert Series, and Levine Music Presents. Additionally, she has performed solos and orchestral piano for many ballet companies including the New York City Ballet, Salt Lake City Ballet, Suzanne Ferrell Ballet, Cincinnati Ballet, Miami Ballet, Martha Graham Ballet, and the Mariinsky Ballet. An advocate for contemporary music, Dr. Halstead enjoys programming concerts that highlight living composers, especially music by women composers. She has collaborated with composers for the Virginia Arts Festival’s John Duffy Institute and programmed new music as part of Surf and Sounds Chamber Music Festival in the Outer Banks. Last season, she collaborated with visual artist Simon Harding at Levine Music for a special concert featuring live visual art created from sound waves of music by deaf composers.

Dr. Amanda Halstead is Director of Suzuki Instruction at Levine Music in Washington DC. In addition to administrative duties, her teaching load includes traditional students, Suzuki students, chamber music, and mentoring new teachers. Before moving to northern Virginia, she taught at Old Dominion University and Chrisopher Newport University. Dr. Halstead earned her Bachelor’s degree from Rice University in Houston, Texas and her Master’s and Doctorate from the College-Conservatory of Music (CCM) at the University of Cincinnati. Her former teachers include Robert Roux, Eugene and Elizabeth Pridonoff, and Frank Weinstock.

Justin Peck is a two-time Tony Award^®–winning director, choreographer, filmmaker, and dancer based in New York City. He is the Resident Choreographer of the New York City Ballet, and only the second person in the institution’s 75-year history to hold this title. He has developed and created over 50 stage and theater works that have been presented on stages around the world including Lincoln Center, the Palais Garnier, Sydney Opera House, Brooklyn Academy of Music, and Broadway (most recently: conceiving, directing, and choreographing the 2024 Tony Award^®–winning production of Illinoise). His creations for the dance world have been performed by companies all over the world, including the Paris Opera Ballet, Australian Ballet, Dresden Semperoper Ballet, Hong Kong Ballet, Boston Ballet, Juilliard, National Ballet of Canada, Miami City Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, LA Dance Project, Dutch National Ballet, the School of American Ballet, Joffrey Ballet, and Houston Ballet, among many others. Peck works extensively as a filmmaker, with credits including direction of music videos for The National, Chris Thile, and Dan Deacon, choreographing the 2021 film West Side Story in collaboration with director Steven Spielberg, choreographing the 2023 film Maestro in collaboration with director/writer/actor Bradley Cooper, and being commissioned by the New York Times to direct 10 films celebrating the best acting performances of the 2018 year, which included performances by Julia Roberts, Ethan Hawke, Lakeith Stanfield, Glenn Close, Emma Stone, and Toni Collette. Peck is a two-time Tony Award^® recipient for Best Choreography for the Broadway productions of Carousel (2018) and Illinoise (2024), as well as a recipient of the National Arts Award (2018), the Golden Plate Honor from the Academy of Achievement (2019), the Bessie Award for Outstanding Production for Rodeo: Four Dance Episodes (2015), the World Choreography Award for the film West Side Story (2022), and the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Choreography for the new musical Buena Vista Social Club (2024).

Jodie Gates is the Founding Director of the USC Glorya Kaufman School of Dance and Founder and Artistic Director of the Laguna Dance Festival. She is also an artistic collaborator with choreographer William Forsythe, and stages ballets internationally for Forsythe Productions. For 35 years, she has contributed to the profession as a visionary leader, artistic director, educator, curator, stager, choreographer, and principal dancer. Since 2005, Gates’ vision for the Laguna Dance Festival has fostered artistic collaborations and choreographic commissions for multi-generational artists, while also providing youth scholarships, training, and opportunities for pre-professional and professional dancers throughout the year. Gates is formerly a principal ballerina with the Joffrey Ballet, Frankfurt Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet, and Complexions Contemporary Ballet, as well as a principal guest artist with several companies around the world. Her guest appearances include a gala at The Maryinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia, the Benois de la Danse in Moscow, dancing Odette/Odile with Fernando Bujones in Swan Lake at the Ballet de Monterrey, Mexico, to appearing in well-known festivals such as Spoleto in Italy, The Edinburgh Festival, the Nijinsky Festival in Hamburg, Germany, and The Melbourne Festival in Australia. As a recognized female ballet choreographer, Gates has created more than 60 original dance works. She has been commissioned by dozens of dance companies, television ad campaigns, and academic institutions, and her work has been performed at the Kennedy Center, New York’s City Center Theater, Staatsballett Berlin, Princeton University, the Helsinki International Ballet Competition, the Vail Dance Festival, and many other venues and festivals.

Takehiro “Take” Ueyama, a Tokyo native, moved to the United States in 1991 to study dance at the Juilliard School in New York City. Upon graduation, he was invited to join the Paul Taylor Dance Company, touring the world with them for eight years. He has also performed repeatedly as a guest artist with Kazuko Hirabayashi Dance Theatre. In 2003, Ueyama debuted his first choreographic work, Tsubasa, performed with fellow Taylor dancers at the McKenna Theatre at SUNY New Paltz, and in 2005 he founded TAKE Dance. Containing both powerful athleticism and traces of his Japanese heritage, his repertoire has been inspired by the beauty in nature, the duality of darkness and light in the universal human condition, and the humanity and compassion in day-to-day living. Ueyama has enjoyed worldwide recognition: his Sakura Sakura was a prizewinner at the International Modern Dance Choreographic Competition in Burgos, Spain, and he was one of four choreographers selected for the 2006 Free to Rep at FSU’s Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography. In 2010, he was the first choreographer to win the S&R Foundation’s prestigious Washington Award. Ueyama received the 2015 Jadin Wong Award for Emerging Asian American choreographer by Asian American Arts Alliance. Ueyama was awarded a 2022 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship Grant. Most recently, he received the 2023 Danse Mirage Foundation’s Choreography grant for his new work Bamboo Dreams.

Matthew Neenan, co-founder of BalletX, is a celebrated American choreographer described by The New York Times as “one of America’s best dance poets.” He trained at the Boston Ballet School and with noted teachers Nan Keating and Jacqueline Cronsberg before moving to NYC to attend LaGuardia H.S. of Performing Arts and the School of American Ballet. In 1994, he joined Pennsylvania Ballet (now the Philadelphia Ballet) and was their resident choreographer from 2007 - 2020, where he created 20 ballets. His choreography has been performed nationally and internationally by top companies, including New York City Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Washington Ballet, Ballet West, Colorado Ballet, Ballet Met, Ballet Memphis, Milwaukee Ballet, Dance Aspen, Tulsa Ballet, Kansas City Ballet, Nashville Ballet, Parsons Dance, BODYTRAFFIC, Juilliard Dance, USC Kaufman School of Dance, and six world premieres at the Vail Dance Festival, among many others. 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. Neenan was also the first recipient of the Jerome Robbins NEW Program Fellowship. His ballet for BalletX, The Last Glass, was recognized in 2013 as a New York Times Top 10 in Dance.

Eli Alford received his BFA in dance from the USC Glorya Kaufman School of Dance under the direction of Jodie Gates and William Forsythe where he learned and performed the works of Ohad Naharin, Jiri Kylian, Justin Peck, Merce Cunningham, and Dwight Rhoden to name a few. Eli joined BalletX in 2022.

Itzkan Barbosa danced with Miami City Ballet and NY Theater Ballet, where she performed works by Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Antony Tudor, and more. She also performs contemporary and aerial dance with Dzul Dance and is a Principal Artist with Verzola Ballet. Itzkan joined BalletX in 2023.

Luca De-Poli attended the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, and began his career with the Cincinnati Ballet Second Company. He’s performed works by Ma Cong, Ohad Naharin, Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, Nicolo Fonte, Justin Peck, and others. Luca joined BalletX in 2024.

Francesca Forcella danced with the Washington Ballet Studio Company, Los Angeles American Contemporary Ballet, and Houston Ballet II, where she toured internationally, representing Houston Ballet at the International Youth Dance Festival in Budapest, Hungary. Francesca joined BalletX in 2013.

Savannah Green studied at Manhattan Youth Ballet and LaGuardia High School for the Performing Arts. She graduated with a BFA from the University of California, Santa Barbara, in 2017, performing works by Jose Limon, Andrea Miller, and Anna Halprin. Savannah joined BalletX in 2020.

Lanie Jackson danced with Ballet Virginia after graduating from The Juilliard School where she performed works by Gentian Doda, Andrea Miller, James B. Whiteside, and Matthew Neenan, and participated in residencies with Ohad Naharin of Batsheva Dance Company. Lanie joined BalletX in 2023.

Mathis Joubert is a former member of Visceral Dance Chicago, ‘Verb’ Ohio Contemporary Ballet, and Bad Boys of Ballet. He also performed at the Concert of Paris, Riyadh Season Festival, and Paris Fashion Week. He has been featured as a dancer model with Adidas, Reebok & Asus. Mathis joined BalletX in 2024.

Jared Kelly trained at The Washington School of Ballet, Baltimore School for the Arts, and Indiana University Ballet Theatre, where he graduated with a BS in Ballet. Jared has performed works by George Balanchine, Martha Graham, Jerome Robbins, Twyla Tharp, and Paul Taylor, among others. Jared joined BalletX in 2022.

Eileen Kim received her BFA in dance from the USC Glorya Kaufman School of Dance and danced with the Universal Ballet in Seoul, South Korea, and Cincinnati Ballet. Eileen performed featured roles by George Balanchine, Justin Peck, JiÅ™í Kylián, and Kyle Abraham, among others. Eileen joined BalletX in 2024.

Skyler Lubin danced as a member of the Corps de Ballet with Miami City Ballet from 2010-2014. She has performed featured roles including Flower Festival pas de deux, Swan Lake pas de trios, and Jerome Robbins’ Afternoon of a Faun, and has premiered pieces by Alexei Ratmansky and Liam Scarlett. Skyler joined BalletX in 2015.

Jonathan Montepara, from Orsogna (Italy), graduated from the Balletto di Roma. He danced for American Repertory Ballet, and has worked with Ethan Stiefel, Amy Hall Garner, Loughlan Prior, Jennifer Archibald, Matthew Neenan, Jamar Roberts, Caili Quan, and other international artists. Jonathan joined BalletX in 2022.

Jerard Palazo studied at the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School Professional Division, Toronto Dance Theatre, Ailey School, Jacob's Pillow Contemporary Program, and Nederlands Dans Theatre. He has worked with Nai Ni Chen Dance Company, Peridance Company, and Lavagnino Dance. Jerard joined BalletX in 2022.

Minori Sakita trained at the Maryland Youth Ballet and Houston Ballet Academy. She danced with Tulsa Ballet and Cincinnati Ballet, and has performed principal roles in works by Victoria Morgan, John Cranko, André Prokovsky, Derek Dean, Balanchine, and Septime Weber, among others. Minori joined BalletX in 2024.

Ben Schwarz trained at Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet and The School of American Ballet. He has originated roles in works by Alysa Spires, Norbert De La Cruz III, Silas Farley, and Preston Chamblee, and performed in Balanchine classics such as Western Symphony and Bourée Fantasque. Ben joined BalletX in 2022.

Ashley Simpson studied at W. Dreyfoos High School of the Arts and Ailey/Fordham, where she graduated Magna Cum Laude and as a Denise Jefferson Scholar. She is a Princess Grace Honoraria winner and has been featured in Dance Magazine and Pointe Magazine. Ashley joined BalletX in 2020.

Peter Weil trained at The Metropolitan Ballet Academy, Boston Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School, and Orlando Ballet. He danced with Philadelphia Ballet, where he performed world premieres by Matthew Neenan, Helen Pickett, and Garrett Smith. Peter joined BalletX in 2023.