Peter Boal was raised in Bedford, New York. At the age of nine, he began studying ballet at the School of American Ballet, the official school of New York City Ballet. Mr. Boal became a member of New York City Ballet's corps de ballet in 1983 and became a principal dancer in 1989. In 2005, he retired from New York City Ballet after a 22-year career with the company. Mr. Boal was also a full-time faculty member at the School of American Ballet from 1997 to 2005. In 2003, he founded Peter Boal and Company, a critically acclaimed chamber ensemble.

Among the many ballets in which Mr. Boal was featured at New York City Ballet are George Balanchine's Agon, Apollo, A Midsummer Night's Dream (Oberon), and Prodigal Son; Jerome Robbins' Dances at a Gathering and Opus 19/The Dreamer; Ulysses Dove's Red Angels; and works by William Forsythe, Peter Martins, Twyla Tharp, and Christopher Wheeldon.

In addition to touring with New York City Ballet, Mr. Boal performed as a principal dancer with Ballet Arizona, Ballet du Nord, the Maryinsky Ballet, Norwegian National Ballet, the Royal Birmingham Ballet, and Suzanne Farrell Ballet. In 1996, Mr. Boal received the Dance Magazine Award, and in 2000, he received a New York Dance and Performance Award (Bessie) for his performance in Molissa Fenley's State of Darkness.

In 2005, upon his retirement from New York City Ballet, Mr. Boal became Artistic Director of Pacific Northwest Ballet (PNB) and Director of Pacific Northwest Ballet School. Founded in 1972, PNB presents more than 100 performances annually of full-length and mixed repertory ballets at Marion Oliver McCaw Hall and on tour. The Company has toured to Europe, Australia, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Canada, and throughout the United States. Under the direction of Mr. Boal, PNB has diversified its repertory to include new works by Trisha Brown, David Dawson, Ulysses Dove, Marco Goecke, Jiri Kylian, Jessica Lang, Jean-Christophe Maillot, Susan Marshall, Mark Morris, Justin Peck, Crystal Pite, Victor Quijada, Alexei Ratmansky, Twyla Tharp, and Christopher Wheeldon, as well as additional works by George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins. Mr. Boal has staged the works of George Balanchine (Apollo, Divertimento from "La Baiser de la Fée", Duo Concertant, George Balanchine's The Nutcracker®, Prodigal Son, Square Dance, La Sonnambula, and Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux), Ulysses Dove (Red Angels), and Peter Martins (Valse Triste) for the Company and elsewhere.