The Kid Should See This

How ballet dancer Silas Farley finds inspiration in The Met collection

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“I’ve always thought that the male ballet dancer is kind of like a warrior poet,” explains choreographer and New York City Ballet alum Silas Farley in this two-minute Met Stories video from The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. He then shares how a gifted membership to The Met helped connect his art to other art forms when he was 14 years old.

I saw the rhythm in repetition of a pattern, the movement in the brushstroke in a painting, the clean lines and the precision of shapes. And the grace, this mix of strength and sensitivity that I’m trying to cultivate as a ballet dancer…

I come here to be inspired, to find a clue, to find the next step.

silas farley at the met
Now 26, Farley’s passion for finding dance inspiration through observation was captured in this 2009 New York Times article:

…he watches everything. Even when he is not in class himself, Mr. Farley can be found in doorways, armed with his notebook, to absorb all he can about ballet, teaching, and, of course, choreography.

Farley continues to create for the NYCB’s podcast and will be “an artist-in-residence in ballet in the dance division at the Meadows School of the Arts at Southern Methodist University for the 2020-21 school year.”

Silas Farley
Watch more videos about The Met and ballet, and then watch these handpicked related videos:
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