Dean’s List: Tommy Neblett Shares His YouTube Top Five
Boston Conservatory dancers perform Urban Unrest by Tommie-Waheed Evans
Jim Coleman
It’s safe to say no one knows Boston Conservatory’s Dance Division better than Tommy Neblett. For more than 30 years—including seven as dean—he has played an indispensable role in training young dancers, shaping division curriculum, and bringing out the very best in student performances. As artistic director of the division’s annual mainstage concerts, From the Ground Up and Limitless, he’s also made sure that Boston Conservatory dancers get the chance to perform a wide range of repertoire: reconstructions of masterworks, collaborations with emerging choreographers, and world premieres by many of the biggest names in dance.
Here, Neblett shares a “dean’s list” of sorts—his top-five favorite videos from Boston Conservatory at Berklee’s YouTube dance playlist. The videos feature student dancers performing works by guest choreographers and Conservatory faculty, as well as a reconstruction of a 1989 work by Dan Wagoner that featured Neblett in the original cast.
Urban Unrest (2016)
Choreography by Tommie-Waheed Evans
Tommie-Waheed Evans won a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2021 for a body of work that merges street dance style with contemporary dance technique, engaging with questions of blackness, queerness, spirituality, and liberation. Commissioned for the fall 2016 production of From the Ground Up, Urban Unrest is “a powerful statement on the times we're living in,” Neblett says.
KCON (2022)
Choreography by Jennifer Archibald
Jennifer Archibad's many commissions for Boston Conservatory include three works created especially for live performance at KCON Los Angeles, the world’s largest convention for Korean culture and music. This piece is the first of the three—all of which were performed by Boston Conservatory students for a packed house at the Crypto.com Arena. Archibald has praised Boston Conservatory dance students for their versatility, encompassing ballet, modern, hip-hop, and K-pop. “If you have dancers that can do it all, it’s exciting,” she says.
Tongues (2019)
Choreography by Bradley Shelver
Neblett chose Bradley Shelver’s Tongues for its “tour-de-force brilliant dancing,” set to foot-stomping, hand-clapping rhythms by Lo Còr de la Plana. Shelver is currently the artistic director of the Joffrey Concert Group and the Jazz and Contemporary Trainee Program at the Joffrey Ballet School, and this past fall began his 17th season with the Metropolitan Opera Ballet.
The Count Meets the Duke (2021)
Choreography by James Viera
“Jazzdance from a bygone era” earned The Count Meets the Duke a coveted place in Neblett’s top five. Choreographer and longtime faculty member Jim Viera (who first joined Boston Conservatory in 1982) evokes vintage Broadway and classic Hollywood musicals in this commissioned piece, employing jazz moves that seem effortlessly cool, yet manage to show off the dancers’ strong foundational technique.
PLOD (2024)
Choreography by Dan Wagoner
Prior to teaching, Neblett spent much of his performance career with the New York–based company Dan Wagoner and Dancers, so it’s little surprise that this piece makes the dean’s list of favorites. “It holds a special place in my life because I was in the original cast in 1989,” Neblett says. Set to Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 1 in D Major, the live presentations of PLOD were backed by Boston Conservatory Orchestra musicians—who brought a heightened sense of energy to this cross-divisional performance.