Kellye A. Saunders

Ms. Saunders began her dance training at the Jones-Haywood School of Ballet in Washington, DC.  She continued her dance education at Le Centre de Danse International in Cannes, France under the tutelage of Rosella Hightower before joining the Dance Theatre of Harlem.  Kellye spent most of her career with the Dance Theatre of Harlem where she was a principal dancer. Some of her featured roles include Firebird, Giselle, A Song for Dead Warriors, Apollo, Serenade, Adrian (Angel on Earth), The Four Temperaments, Les Biches, Concerto Barocco, The Moor’s Pavane, Allegro Brillante and Fancy Free.  She has also appeared in the Broadway productions of The Red Shoes and Porgy and Bess and as a guest artist dancing the role of The Striptease Girl in Slaughter on Tenth Avenue in a collaborative project with The New York City Ballet.  After leaving DTH, Kellye joined Ballet NY and Collage Dance Collective as a principal dancer.  Some of her other guest appearances include performances with Washington Ballet, Maryland Ballet, Ballethnic Dance Company, Gala of International Ballet Stars, Configurations Dance Company, The Flint Institute of Music, Complexions Contemporary Dance and The Metropolitan Opera.

Kellye graduated Summa Cum Laude with a BA in Dance in Performance from St. Mary’s College of California.  She has extensive experience teaching and coaching dancers at both academic and professional levels. From 2010- 2013, she served as the project coordinator for the Dance Theatre of Harlem’s Harlem Dance Works 2.0 Series, a series of choreographic workshops whose purpose was to produce new repertoire for the Dance Theatre of Harlem Company.  Kellye served as Ballet master of the Dance Theatre of Harlem Company from 2013-2019.  She joined the faculty of the School for Classical and Contemporary Dance at Texas Christian University in Fall 2019.

American Guild of Musical Artists (AGMA)

Actor’s Equity of America (AEA)