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 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. After college, Kelly lived in Boston, MA, where she co-founded Royal Jelly, a performance collective, and Tuscon, AZ, where she performed and choreographed with NewARTiculations Dance Theatre and gave birth to the first of her four children.

Kelly and her family spent a number of years in the Charlottesville, VA area, where she danced with Prospect Dance Group, inFluxdance, and UpRooted Dance Theatre. She opened The Dance Barn in Stanardsville, VA, and served as a board member and resident choreographer of Charlottesville Ballet, 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. Kelly continued her dance scholarship with research into the intersection of sustainability and the arts, and in 2016 she published a paper titled "Shifting Climates: Applying Principles of Sustainability to Dance-Making Endeavors." From 2012-2022 Kelly was the founder/director of the tinydance project, which created interdisciplinary dance art on a 4' by 8' stage towed by bicycle to performances. Projects since 2022 have included “Karen with a K,” created with long time collaborator Cat Wagner, and “Miss Treated,” created with Melissa Edwards.

Kelly is the Co-Director of the Northampton Center for the Arts, serves as Board Chair Scapegoat Garden, and teaches community dance classes. She is a mom of four and grandma of one, and a community organizer with Western Mass Showing Up for Racial Justice. Her current work includes an ongoing dance theater project called the DIY Guide to Life and Death.
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Please contact Kelly if you are interested in her full CV.
Click here to see Kelly's work on Vimeo.