Welcoming our New Deans

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After seven remarkable years, Jenifer Ringer and James Fayette will be leaving their positions as Dean and Associate Dean of the Trudl Zipper Dance Institute. Multi-faceted artist, educator, choreographer, and New York City Ballet alumnus Silas Farley will become Dean of the Trudl Zipper Dance Institute, and Darleen Callaghan, former Director of Miami City Ballet School and North Carolina Dance Theatre School of Dance, will become Associate Dean at the start of the 2021–22 academic year.

Meet Silas Farley

Silas Farley
It is a joy for me to join the Colburn School in this role, leading a multidimensional program that nurtures the whole dancer. Silas Farley

“It is a joy for me to join the Colburn School in this role, leading a multidimensional program that nurtures the whole dancer. To do this alongside my longtime friend and mentor, Darleen Callaghan, makes this opportunity even more special. I have admired and respected Jenifer and James for years, and it is a privilege to build upon their excellent work. Darleen and I are thrilled to steward this next chapter at the Trudl Zipper Dance Institute. In collaboration with the School’s brilliant faculty, we hope to further develop the Trudl Zipper Dance Institute as a premier dance training program.”

Pointe Magazine
Silas Farley’s Vision for Los Angeles’ Colburn School

New York Times
Silas Farley to Lead Dance Academy in Los Angeles

Los Angeles Times
New York City Ballet alum Silas Farley, 26, is named dean of Colburn dance institute

New York Times
Retiring From Ballet at 26? Dancing Can Get You Only So Far

Songs from The Spirit, choreographed and performed by Silas Farley
Metropolitan Museum of Art Digital Premiere

 
Anachorisi (Departure), choreographed and performed by Silas Farley
Works & Process at the Guggenheim

 
 
At the age of eight, Silas attended a Charlotte Ballet performance of The Nutcracker and was invited backstage, where he met Darleen Callaghan. Darleen had just started a scholarship program for young male dancers and, immediately noticing Silas’ passion for dance, invited him to join. Darleen soon began to recognize Silas’ natural gifts for teaching and choreography, and gave him the opportunity to choreograph at 11 and teach at age 13, cultivating his interests in all dimensions of dance. Silas trained under Darleen’s direction until the age of 14, before he entered the School of American Ballet, the official school of New York City Ballet, as a full scholarship student. From 2012–2020, he danced with New York City Ballet, where he performed principal roles in the works of George Balanchine and Christopher Wheeldon and originated roles in ballets by Wheeldon, Lauren Lovette, and Justin Peck.

Farley has taught nationally and internationally, including at the School of American Ballet, New York City Ballet, Slovak National Ballet, Colburn School, Peabody Conservatory, Hartt School, Chautauqua School of Dance, and Kennedy Center. He has choreographed for the School of American Ballet, the New York Choreographic Institute, Columbia Ballet Collaborative at Columbia University, and Works & Process at The Guggenheim.

In 2017, Farley collaborated with poet Ilya Kaminsky on the ballet adaptation of Kaminsky’s book, Deaf Republic, at Grace Farms Foundation. In the fall of 2017, Farley was commissioned by MetLiveArts to choreograph a site-specific work at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. That work, Songs From The Spirit, was made in collaboration with the Ear Hustle podcast and was set to music by currently and formerly incarcerated musicians from San Quentin State Prison. The ballet premiered at The Met Museum in 2019.

Farley was an inaugural Jerome Robbins Dance Division Research Fellow at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. He has written for Dance Magazine and lectured for the New York City Ballet, New York Philharmonic, Saratoga Performing Arts Center, Park Avenue Armory, and Museum of Modern Art. Farley is writer and host of the New York City Ballet podcast, Hear The Dance. He is an Amplify Artist at the Colburn School. He is also an Alumnus Trustee of Professional Children’s School and serves on the Board of The George Balanchine Foundation. Mr. Farley currently serves as the Armstrong Visiting Artist in Residence in Ballet in The Meadows School of the Arts at Southern Methodist University (SMU) for the 2020–21 academic year.

Meet Darleen Callaghan

Darleen Callaghan
It is truly a privilege to join the Colburn School as Associate Dean, and build upon the incredible work of Jenifer and James. Darleen Callaghan

“It is truly a privilege to join the Colburn School as Associate Dean, and build upon the incredible work of Jenifer and James. To serve in this capacity with Silas is the culmination of a rich, decades-long partnership. Together, we bring a unique breadth of experience to the School, from artistic to administration, and I look forward to helping these young dance students realize their dreams as a part of the rich legacy of the Colburn community.”

A highly respected dance professional with over 30 years of performance and administrative experience, Darleen Callaghan is nationally-recognized for her work as Director of North Carolina Dance Theatre School of Dance (the official school for North Carolina Dance Theatre, now Charlotte Ballet), where she increased enrollment from 150 to 700 students in the first three years and achieved national recognition for the School as a major professional training institution.

As Director of the Miami City Ballet School, she was instrumental in establishing a variety of new curriculum, performance and outreach initiatives. Darleen oversaw the development of a new school syllabus and expanded the Pre-Professional Division curriculum to include composition classes, a Student Choreography Showcase and a comprehensive Supplemental Training Program that included Pilates, Gyrotonics, and weight-training classes. She established the Miami City Ballet School Ensemble, a pre-professional student performing company, which performed the Miami City Ballet’s signature outreach program, “Ballet for Young People” in major theaters throughout South Florida. Darleen also developed the widely-acclaimed “Ballet Bus” program, providing transportation, counseling, and ballet training to underserved children in the local community.

An experienced performer as well as administrator, she began her dance training with the Stone-Camryn School of Ballet in Chicago where she performed as a child with the New York City Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet and the Stone-Camryn Ballet. She was then awarded full scholarships for further study at the American Ballet Theatre School and the School of American Ballet in New York City. As a student at SAB, she had the privilege of performing with Jacques D’Amboise & Friends, Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux-Patricia McBride & Company, and at the White House for the President at a NATO Summit Dinner. Throughout her performing career, Callaghan danced in numerous ballets from the Balanchine repertory including Symphony in C, Divertimento #15, Square Dance, Four Temperaments, Scotch Symphony, Valse Fantaisie, and Allegro Brillante. She danced in a variety of principal, soloist, and corps de ballet roles with the North Carolina Dance Theatre performing in classical and contemporary works by Aiello, Ariaz, Balanchine, Bournonville, Nebrada, Petipa, Thomasson, and Vesak. She joined the company for two European tours, performances at the Spoleto Festivals in America and Italy, and extensive annual tours throughout the United States.