New dance chair at Patel
By Carrie Seidman , Herald-Tribune
/ Thursday, June 4, 2015
Philip Neal has been named chair of the Patel Conservatory Dance Department in Tampa and the artistic director of its pre-professional company, Next Generation Ballet.
Neal replaces former chair Peter Stark, who announces his plans to leave the Straz Center program in February. He will officially begin in tenure June 15 and will lead the month-long Next Generation Ballet Summer Intensive program, as well as a full slate of summer camps and classes. Stark has taken a position with Boston Ballet.
Patrick Neal / Photo courtesy Straz Center
Neal comes to the conservatory following a 23-year tenancy with the New York City Ballet. He is a popular instructor and has worked with numerous companies and schools, including the Miami City Ballet, Boston Ballet, Joffery Ballet and School of the American Ballet. He is also a repetiteur for the George Balanchine Trust and the Jerome Robbins Rights Trust, staging the ballet of both legendary choreographers throughout the world.
Neal, also a choreographer, has been commissioned to craft five original works for the Richmond Ballet, where he began his training at age 11, and was invited to participate in the New York Choreographic Institute.
In addition to his training in Richmond and New York, Neal also studied at the Royal Danish Ballet School in Denmark. He joined the New York City Ballet corps de ballet in 1987, was promoted to the rank of soloist in 1991 and became a principal dancer during the 1992-1993 season. There, he performed many works from the Balanchine repertoire, including "Apollo," "Divertimento No. 15," "Mozartiana," "Serenade," and "Tchaikovsky Piano Concert No. 2" and was featured in Robbins' "Dances at a Gathering," "The Goldberg Variations," and "I'm Old Fashioned." Neal has also been a guest performer with the Kirov Ballet and the Paris Opera Ballet.
More information on the Patel Conservatory, which is currently celebrating its 10th anniversary, can be found at www.strazcenter.org.
Carrie Seidman
Carrie Seidman has been a newspaper features writer, columnist and reviewer for 30 years...and a dancer for longer than that. She has a master's degree from Columbia University Journalism School and is a former competitive ballroom dancer. Contact her via email, or at (941) 361-4834. Make sure to "Like" Arts Sarasota on Facebook for news and reviews of the arts.
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