Megan McCool

Megan Bonneau McCool Photography

I come to the business of photography after a long love for it while creating a career in the art of ballet and choreography. I am self-trained in photography and am always studying and learning more. I love performance, dance, and theatre photography especially. I continue to choreograph and teach and love how photography helps round out my creativity in life, inside and outside the world of the performing arts.

I trained in classical ballet, jazz and modern at the Pioneer Valley Ballet in MA and at the School of American Ballet in New York City. At SAB, I 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.

I danced as an apprentice with the New York City Ballet in the early 1990’s. I then attended Smith College, graduating with an A.B. in American Studies and a Masters of Fine Arts in Dance. During this time, I also served as Ballet Mistress and Office Manager for the Pioneer Valley Ballet, where I staged many full length classics including The Nutcracker, and rehearsed ballets including Balanchine’s Valse Fantasie and original works by numerator choreographers, as well as handling many aspects of the of the well-established non-profit. I later served as an artistic consultant and advisory board member.

I have taught extensively and choreographed over 30 commissioned ballets, including a full length Hansel & Gretel, throughout the northeast at numerous schools and colleges, from Walnut Hill School for the Arts, Muhlenberg College, Smith College, UMass Amherst, and The Ballet School of Stamford, and The Studio at Ballet Etudes, to Alabama Dance Theatre. I received RDA/NE Emerging Choreographer's Award and Scholarship for my first piece in 1995. My choreography has also been performed at the RDA Festivals and at the ACDFA’s National Festival at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C.

In Fairfield County, where I live with my husband and three children, I have also recently been actively involved as volunteer facilitator of cultural arts events in the public schools and has choreographed numerous public school musicals including Annie Jr., Aladdin Jr., The Music Man Jr., High School Musical, Madagascar Jr., Mary Poppins, Jr., Bye Bye Birdie, Lion King Jr. and Newsies. I was recently awarded 2018 ACE (Arts & Culture Empowerment) Artist Award by the Cultural Alliance of Fairfield County.

I have always been an avid photographer and videographer and have enjoyed having many opportunities to grow in this field throughout all of my activities.