Cooper Verona
Cooper Verona is thrilled to be joining BalletMet for the 2022-2023 season! He moved from Pittsburgh where he danced for Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre for eleven seasons. He is originally from Connecticut and received his early training from David Lawrence and Wendy Fish-Lawrence at Connecticut Concert Ballet. He received further training from Ethan Stiefel at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and Claudio Muñoz and Andrew Murphy at Houston Ballet’s Ben Stevenson Academy. Mr. Verona has been featured as Hilarion in Terrence S Orr’s Giselle, Rothbart in Swan Lake, Tybalt in Derek Deane’s Romeo and Juliette, Dracula in Ben Stevenson’s Dracula, Bernardo in Jerome Robbins’ West Side Story Suite, Mad Hatter in Derek Deane’s Alice in Wonderland, Jay Gatsby in Jorden Morris’ The Great Gatsby, Carabosse in Sleeping Beauty, and Cavalier in Terrence S. Orr’s The Nutcracker. He has also been featured in William Forsythe’s In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated, Jerome Robbins’ In the Night, Dwight Rhoden’s Ave Maria, and Julia Adam’s Ketubah. Other memorable performances include Twyla Tharp’s In the Upper Room, Jiří Kylián’s Petite Mort and Sechs Tanze, James Kudelka’s The Man in Black, Kyle Abraham’s Quiet Dance, and Mark Morris’ Maelstrom, Drink To Me Only With Thine Eyes, and Sandpaper Ballet. Verona also has a passion for choreography. He has been commissioned by Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre to create brood, Walking With, Gravitational Embrace and Thick White Sheets. He has also created works for Point Park University, Chamber Dance Project, PearlARTS Festival, Carnegie Mellon Center for the Arts in Society and Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre’s School.