Dancer, educator, and choreographer Silas Farley, a recent New York City Ballet alumnus, is Dean of the Trudl Zipper Dance Institute and an Amplify Artist.
Silas Farley began his training when he was 7 years old in his hometown of Charlotte, North Carolina with Sal and Barbara Messina at King David Christian Conservatory. He continued his training at Charlotte Ballet Academy with Hamburg Ballet alumni Kathryn Moriarty and Mark Diamond and New York City Ballet (NYCB) alumni Patricia McBride and Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux. He completed his ballet training at The School of American Ballet (SAB). He joined NYCB in 2012 and danced with the Company until 2020. There 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 The 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, The Washington Ballet, and American Ballet Theatre.
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. Mr. Farley served 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.
In addition to his role as Dean of the Trudl Zipper Dance Institute, Mr. Farley 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.
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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