Matthew began his ballet training in Norfolk, Virginia at Ballet Virginia International under the direction of Janina Bove and Suzanne Lownsbury Long. In 2014, after attending the summer intensive program at Orlando Ballet, he joined the Orlando Ballet School Academy under the direction of Dierdre Miles Burger. Matthew became a trainee the following year and then joined Orlando Ballet II the next year in 2017 under direction of Robert Hill. While dancing at Orlando Ballet Matthew had the opportunity to dance in original works by artistic director Robert Hill such as “The Firebird”, “Romeo & Juliet”, “Piano Concerto No.2”, Swan Lake and many more. From 2018-2020 Mathew was a company dancer with San Diego Ballet directed by Javier Velasco. Some of Matthew’s highlights dancing with San Diego Ballet were Basilio in “Don Quixote Suite”, Bottom in “A Midsummer’s Night Dream” as well as many leading roles and original works by Javier Velasco. From 2020-22 Matthew danced as a company dancer with Columbia City Ballet under direction of William Starrett ,where he performed various soloist and corps roles such as Renfield in “Dracula:Ballet with a bite” and the Jester in “Swan Lake”. For the 2022-23 season Matthew had the opportunity to dance with Ballet San Antonio under the direction of Sofiane Sylve as a corps de ballet dancer. A few highlights include the King of Hearts in Brian Enos’ “Alice in Wonderland” and a member of the corps for Houston Thomas’s “Pauline Project”. Matthew has also had the opportunity to work with various notable teachers, dancers, choreographers, ballet mistresses and directors such as Susan Jones, Val Caniparoli, and Michael Pink, Lydia Roberts Coco, Lorraine Graves, Olivier Munoz, Julio Bocca, Kim Marsh, Yan Chen, Joseph Gatti, Adiarys Almeida and Joseph Phillips.
This will be Matthew’s first season with Minnesota Ballet