JUEL D. LANE

JUEL D. LANE is a renaissance artist known for his boundless creativity. He has performed with renowned companies like Ronald K. Brown/Evidence and Camille A. Brown & Dancers. Lane's captivating works have graced prestigious companies including Ailey II, Dallas Black Dance Theater, BODYTRAFFIC, Carolyn Dorfman, Atlanta Ballet, and numerous universities. Lane is the director of The UNCSA Choreographic Institute and executive artistic associate at the Black Acting Methods Studio, where he continues to inspire others. As a passionate lover of dance films, Juel D. Lane has been honored as a Bronzelens Film Festival award winner for his remarkable film The Maestro, which pays homage to the iconic Ernie Barnes. Lane recently co-directed and choreographed the music video Only-1 with Roc Nation artist Dixson. Follow @jueldlane for more.

LAR LUBOVITCH

LAR LUBOVITCH is one of America’s most versatile and widely seen choreographers. He founded the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company in 1968. Over the course of 53 years, it has gained an international reputation as one of America’s top dance companies, produced more than 120 dances and performed before millions across the U.S. and over 40 countries. Many other major companies throughout the world have performed the company’s dances, including American Ballet Theatre, New York City Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet, Royal Danish Ballet, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, the Joffrey Ballet, Martha Graham Dance Company, and more. Lubovitch has created ice-dancing works for Olympians John Curry, Peggy Fleming, Dorothy Hamill, Brian Orser, JoJo Starbuck, and Paul Wylie, and he has created feature-length ice-dance specials for TV: The Planets for A&E (nominated for an International Emmy Award, a Cable AceAward, and a Grammy Award) and The Sleeping Beauty for PBS and Anglia TV, Great Britain. His theater and film work includes Sondheim/ Lapine’s Into the Woods (Tony Award nomination), The Red Shoes (Astaire Award), the Tony Award-winning revival of The King and I (on Broadway and in London’s West End), Disney’s Hunchback of Notre Dame in Berlin, and Robert Altman’s movie The Company (American Choreography Award). In 2016, he premiered The Bronze Horseman, based on the Pushkin poem, for the Mikhailovsky Ballet in Russia. In 1987, he conceived Dancing for Life, which took place at Lincoln Center. It was the first response by the dance community to the AIDS crisis, raising over one million dollars. Together with Jay Franke, in 2007 Lubovitch created the Chicago Dancing Festival, in collaboration with the City of Chicago and the Museum of Contemporary Art. It presented 10 seasons entirely free to the public. Recent awards: 2007 named Chicagoan of the Year by the Chicago Tribune; 2008 named similarly by Chicago Magazine; 2011 designated a Ford Fellow by United States Artists and received the Dance/USA Honors Award; 2012 his dance Crisis Variations awarded the Prix Benois de la Danse for outstanding choreography at the Bolshoi Theatre; 2013 honored for lifetime achievement by the American Dance Guild; 2014 awarded an honorary doctorate by The Juilliard School; 2016 received the Scripps/American Dance Festival Award for lifetime achievement and the Dance Magazine Award, named one of America’s Irreplaceable Dance Treasures by the Dance Heritage Coalition and appointed a Distinguished Professor at UC/Irvine. In honor of his company’s 50th anniversary, in 2018 he was presented with the Martha Graham Award for lifetime achievement.

MATTHEW NEENAN

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  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 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 Choreogrpher in Residence at Princeton University.