MEET OUR FACULTY!
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, inFlux Dance and UpRooted Dance Theatre, and performed in Wunderkammer and Shentai. 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 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 continued to dance and teach ballroom and social dancing professionally, including working with couples to choreograph wedding dances. Tom left the corporate world in 2008 to farm full time, and teaches ballroom/social dancing and boys' creative dance at The Dance Barn.
Heather Lively
Miss Heather fell in love with dance at the age of four when her parents placed her in dance classes at a local dance studio in Ridge Manor, FL. She then moved on to dance with South Georgia Performing Arts, the South Georgia Ballet, and later at Wilson School of Dance. In the summer of 2008, Heather was chosen to attend the Summer Residential Governor's School for dance. She has also performed in many ballets including: Sleeping Beauty, Beauty and the Beast, Coppelia, and recently as the Sugar Plum Fairy for The Dance Barn's production of The Nutcracker. Heather is currently a student at Piedmont Virginia Community College and dances with Charlottesville Ballet. Heather teaches jazz and creative dance classes at The Dance Barn.
Emily Mott
Miss Emily 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. Emily teaches creative dance and ballet.
Erin Haggerty
Miss Erin has more than 20 years dance experience. She began dancing at the young age of four and over the years her love of dance has continued to grow and flourish. Erin has studied dance in Baltimore MD, New York NY, Richmond and Charlottesville VA. She is well versed in ballet, tap, ethnic, hip hop, jazz, lyrical, and liturgical dance. For three years Erin was a member of the Wilson School of Dance Company for another year she was a member of the Muddiman Dancers. Erin has taught jazz, tap, liturgical, and ballet classes for Madison Youth Sports (2003) and through the Arch Angel (2006). She greatly enjoyed her time teaching and is looking forward to having the opportunity to do so again. Erin teaches hip hop at The Dance Barn.
The Dance Barn * 8269 Spotswood Trail * Stanardsville, VA 22973 * (434) 985-3200
