The Dance Barn, LLC is a family owned and operated dance studio offering classes in ballet, jazz, tap, modern, and social/ballroom dancing to children of all ages and adults in Greene County, Virginia and surrounding areas. We provide excellent technical training in a fun and nurturing environment, and want all our students to experience the joy of movement that is DANCE.
The Dance Barn began in a converted shed at Sweet Dog Farm as a place for Kelly Silliman to dance, choreograph, and teach friends and family. Kelly and Tom wanted to work closer to home, and while looking for things to do with their three daughters, felt that Greene County could benefit from more activities for kids. In 2008 they moved the Dance Barn to the shopping plaza in Stanardsville, and are now conveniently located in a beautiful studio space between Greene Great Valu and Sal’s Pizza.
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Kelly Silliman (Miss Kelly) studied ballet for ten years before falling in love
with modern dance at age fourteen, after which she promptly began her
first company. She holds a BA in Theatre Arts from Stetson University,
and while in school she implemented and taught the modern dance
program for the Academy of Dance in DeLand, FL. During the summers she participated in Drink to This!, a program for emerging artists in the Hartford, CT area, eventually serving as artistic co-director. After college, Kelly
moved to Boston, where she co-founded Royal Jelly, a performance
ensemble for dancers, musicians, and artists. In 2000, she moved to
Tucson, AZ, where she danced with NEW ARTiculations Dance Theatre. She founded the company’s Youth Dance Ensemble, which offered training and performance experience to low-income youth, as well as choreographing on and teaching NEW ART’s professional dancers. Kelly also spent many years teaching ballet and modern in the studio setting. Since moving to central Virginia in 2004, Kelly has danced with
Prospect Dance Group, performed in Wunderkammer and Shentai, and is
currently working with inFlux Dance and UpRooted Dance Theatre. In addition to The Dance Barn, Kelly and Tom own Sweet Dog Farm, a sustainable agricultural (ad)venture here in Greene County. Kelly teaches ballet, jazz, and modern classes for The Dance Barn.
Tom Silliman (Mr. Tom) began dancing when Kelly brought him to a ballroom dance lesson in 1995. He joined the ballroom dance team at Northeastern University in Boston, MA, from which he holds a BS in electrical engineering. During and after college, Tom (and eventually Kelly) participated in ballroom dance competitions around the New England area. Throughout his career as a Systems Administrator/IT Manager for various companies, Tom has continued to dance and teach ballroom and social dancing professionally, including working with couples to choreograph wedding dances. Tom and Kelly last performed at First Night in Charlottesville 2007. Having recently left the corporate world, Tom teaches social dancing at The Dance Barn and heads up the adventures in farming at Sweet Dog Farm.
Rosalie Silliman has been attending dance rehearsals and performances for six years. She performed as an infant with NEW ARTiculations Dance Theatre in a piece with Kelly. She was most recently seen in the Greene HomeInsteaders’ Christmas Musical. Rosalie likes fairies and nature and animals and dancing and loves living on a farm.
Arissa Silliman has also been to many dance rehearsals and performances, and enjoys running wildly around empty studios. She likes fairies and trucks and playing in the mud.
Phoebe Silliman has spent many dance classes in a carrier on Kelly’s back. She appeared briefly in Shentai before leaving to pursue other interests. Phoebe loves to sing and asks anyone who is sitting down to read her a book, whether she knows them or not.
Wylie Silliman spends most of his time at the studio sleeping. We expect him to start pulling his weight around here in a year or two. Stay tuned!
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MEET OUR FACULTY
Heather Lively began dancing at the age of four with a local dance studio in Florida before moving to receive most of her training at South Georgia Performing Arts and Wilson School of Dance. While at SGPA, Heather performed in productions of The Nutcracker, Beauty and the Beast, Sleeping Beauty, and Coppelia. Heather has studied jazz, tap, and ballet extensively, and spent the last two years as an assistant dance teacher. She is very excited to start her teaching career at The Dance Barn, and is also thrilled to be apprenticing with Charlottesville Ballet this year.
A Chicago native, Ariadne Conner spent many years traipsing across the country to various pre-professional schools. Spending summers at the Houston Ballet Academy, School of American Ballet, and Miami City Ballet in addition to intensive training at the Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet and Ballet Chicago during the year, Ariadne became steeped in the new tradition of George Balanchine. Ariadne relocated to Richmond, Virginia in 2003 to be a trainee with the Richmond Ballet. While a trainee, she had the opportunity to dance in Giselle, Swan Lake, Balanchine's Concerto Barocco, and original choreography by Richmond Ballet Faculty. In 2004 she became enamored with a new form of expression, choreography. She had the honor of choreographing two works on the Richmond Ballet Trainees before moving to Charlottesville. In 2007 she became the co-founder and Artistic Director of the Charlottesville Ballet. She is thrilled to be teaching at The Dance Barn and sharing her love of this art with all!
Emily Mott fell in love with ballet at the age of five. She began dance classes at Roanoke Ballet Theatre in her hometown of Roanoke, VA and continued her training with Unurbat Gunaajav and Michele Goacher. While in the upper levels of her ballet school, Emily taught several creative movement classes and helped create an after school dance class for underprivileged children. She also performed in several collaborative shows with Opera Roanoke, the Mill Mountain Theatre, and with Radford University as the ‘Snow Queen’ in a joint production of The Nutcracker. She attended summer intensives at the Richmond Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, and on scholarship with the Dance Theatre of Harlem. Emily spent her senior year of high school at the Virginia School of the Arts in Lynchburg, VA under the late Petrus Bosman. There she found diverse training and valuable performance opportunities in various dance festivals, in lecture demonstrations for children, and at the Piccolo Spoleto Festival. Upon graduation she joined the Richmond Ballet as a Trainee, performing in Don Quixote, Balanchine’s Valse Fantasie and Who Cares?, and in many new works by Richmond Ballet faculty. She also enjoyed working with Richmond Ballet’s Minds In Motion, a pilot program for Richmond-area schools to incite a love of dance among youth. In 2008, Emily relocated to Charlottesville, VA to join the Charlottesville Ballet and to attend the University of Virginia, uniting both her artistic and academic interests. Emily is thankful to all who have made this journey possible and looks forward to sharing her ardor for dance with the students of The Dance Barn.
Keaton Rodland discovered choreographed dance at the age of 4 when he was signed up for tap class in Charlottesville. After taking a short hiatus to pursue a t-ball career he performed in Four County's The Nutcracker, and then started taking a hip-hop class at Orange School of Performing Arts. From there his love of breakdancing unfolded. His teachers and friends supported his interest and taught him what they knew about b-boys and the culture (B-boy = Break Boy = Breakdancer). Keaton has won regional title awards at dance competitions including Star Power and Star Systems. In addition to hip-hop, Keaton has studied jazz, ballet, modern and tap. He has danced with some b-boy legends as well as modern hip-hop choreographers. Keaton attended Boston University for a year studying acting/performing (Class of 2012), but soon thirsted for country air and the possibility of dancing out in nature. He knows we've all heard it, but wants everyone to remember that when dancing...Have Fun!
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