Megan Bonneau McCool

Megan Bonneau McCool trained in the Pioneer Valley Ballet and the School of American Ballet (New York City), where she received the Mae L. Wein Award for Outstanding Promise and danced the principal roles in ballets including George Balanchine’s Dances Concertantes, Raymonda Variations and Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux, as well as originating principal  roles in ballets by James Sewell and Sean Lavery. Mrs. McCool danced as an apprentice with the New York City Ballet in the early 1990s. She appeared in ballets by Balanchine and Peter Martins while also learning ballets by Jerome Robbins. She then attended Smith College and graduated with an A.B. in American Studies and a M.F.A. in Dance. During this time, she worked for the Pioneer Valley Ballet, staging classics such as The Nutcracker and rehearsing ballets such as Balanchine’s Valse Fantasie and original works by Christopher D’Amboise, Jerry Bevington and Saeko Ichinoe. She later served as an artistic consultant and advisory board member of the Pioneer Valley Ballet. Mrs. McCool has taught extensively for over twenty years and choreographed over thirty commissioned ballets at institutions such Walnut Hill School for the Arts, Muhlenberg College, Smith College, University of Massachusetts Amherst, the Ballet School of Stamford, the Studio at Ballet Etudes and Alabama Dance Theatre. She received the Regional Dance America Northeast’s Emerging Choreographer Award and Scholarship in 1995. Her choreography has also been performed at Regional Dance America festivals and the American College Dance Association’s National Festival at the Kennedy Center, in Washington D.C. She was awarded the 2018 ACE (Arts & Culture Empowerment) Artist Award by the Cultural Alliance of Fairfield County, Connecticut.