Photo by Paul Bloomfield
Kelly Silliman is a dance artist and educator living in Western Massachusetts. She grew up near Hartford, CT, where she studied ballet for ten years before discovering modern dance, after which she promptly began her first dance company. Kelly continued with intensive dance and theatre training throughout her time in CT. Kelly holds a BA in Theatre Arts from Stetson University, and during college she implemented and taught the modern dance program at the Academy of Dance in DeLand, FL. During that time she also participated in Drink to This!, a summer program for emerging artists in Hartford, as a founding member and eventually co-artistic director. In 1999 Kelly moved to Boston where she co-founded Royal Jelly, a performance collective of dancers, artists, and musicians. The wild west called, however, and in 2000 Kelly journeyed to Tuscon, AZ, where she performed and choreographed with NewARTiculations Dance Theatre and taught dance classes at a local studio. During that time she also gave birth to the first of her four children.
In 2004, Kelly and her family returned to the east coast and settled in the Charlottesville, VA area, where she danced with Prospect Dance Group, inFluxdance, and UpRooted Dance Theatre. In 2008 Kelly opened The Dance Barn, a studio in Stanardsville, VA that offered dance classes to children and adults in the rural areas surrounding Charlottesville. During the next few years Kelly also served as a board member and resident choreographer of Charlottesville Ballet, an emerging professional ballet company which eventually bought The Dance Barn (now known as Charlottesville Ballet Academy).
In 2011 Kelly moved to Northampton, MA to pursue her MFA in Dance at Smith College, where she served as a teaching fellow, and graduated in 2013. Kelly continued her dance scholarship with research into the intersection of sustainability and the arts, and was a Five College Associate from 2014-2016. In 2016 she published a paper titled "Shifting Climates: Applying Principles of Sustainability to Dance-Making Endeavors," and as a scholar and educator she is interested in examining and questioning the hierarchies, myths, and assumptions of the dance/performance community, locally and globally. Kelly is also the founder and director of the tinydance project, which from 2012-2022 created interdisciplinary dance art on a 4' by 8' stage towed by bicycle to performances.
Currently, Kelly is the Co-Director (formerly Program Director) of the Northampton Center for the Arts, collaborates with Deborah Goffe/Scapegoat Garden, Cat Wagner, and Melissa Edwards, and teaches community dance classes. She is a mom of four and grandma of one, a community organizer with Western Mass Showing Up for Racial Justice, and she can tie shoelaces in a bow with her toes. She looks forward to many years of dancing, choreographing, teaching, researching, and writing in the Connecticut River Valley!
Please contact Kelly if you are interested in her full CV.
Click here to see Kelly's work on Vimeo.
In 2004, Kelly and her family returned to the east coast and settled in the Charlottesville, VA area, where she danced with Prospect Dance Group, inFluxdance, and UpRooted Dance Theatre. In 2008 Kelly opened The Dance Barn, a studio in Stanardsville, VA that offered dance classes to children and adults in the rural areas surrounding Charlottesville. During the next few years Kelly also served as a board member and resident choreographer of Charlottesville Ballet, an emerging professional ballet company which eventually bought The Dance Barn (now known as Charlottesville Ballet Academy).
In 2011 Kelly moved to Northampton, MA to pursue her MFA in Dance at Smith College, where she served as a teaching fellow, and graduated in 2013. Kelly continued her dance scholarship with research into the intersection of sustainability and the arts, and was a Five College Associate from 2014-2016. In 2016 she published a paper titled "Shifting Climates: Applying Principles of Sustainability to Dance-Making Endeavors," and as a scholar and educator she is interested in examining and questioning the hierarchies, myths, and assumptions of the dance/performance community, locally and globally. Kelly is also the founder and director of the tinydance project, which from 2012-2022 created interdisciplinary dance art on a 4' by 8' stage towed by bicycle to performances.
Currently, Kelly is the Co-Director (formerly Program Director) of the Northampton Center for the Arts, collaborates with Deborah Goffe/Scapegoat Garden, Cat Wagner, and Melissa Edwards, and teaches community dance classes. She is a mom of four and grandma of one, a community organizer with Western Mass Showing Up for Racial Justice, and she can tie shoelaces in a bow with her toes. She looks forward to many years of dancing, choreographing, teaching, researching, and writing in the Connecticut River Valley!
Please contact Kelly if you are interested in her full CV.
Click here to see Kelly's work on Vimeo.