Kayla Farrish is a Black American Director merging dance-theater, filmmaking, narrative, and sound score. Her commissions include Limon Dance Company, Whim W’him, Ririe Woodbury, Armstrong Now!, Danspace, Little Island, Harlem Stage, American Dance Festival and beyond. She creates live works, films, site-specific/immersive pieces, and collaborations with musicians such as Esperanza Spalding, Trixie Whitley, Moor Mother, and Melanie Charles. Presenting spaces include Lincoln Center, Park Avenue Armory, Symphony Space, and National Sawdust, Joyce Theater, among receiving support from Works & Process, Brooklyn Filmmakers Collective, Baryshnikov Arts, La Mama Theater, and others.

She received the Sundance Uprise Grant for Emerging BIPOC Directors, Bessie Awards for December 8th and NYLA’s “Motherboard Suite”, New York Times Top 2021 Dance Performances “Roster” and “Breakout Star.” She is a recipient of the Harkness Promise Award for 2022. She premiered reimagined archival work for Limon at Joyce Theater (2024). She toured “Put Away the Fire, dear” supported by NEFA National Dance Project. She received Watermill Center’s Baroness Nina Von Maltzahn Fellowship and the Ellis-Beauregard Foundation Choreographer Award (2023). She is a 2025 CUNY Dance Initiative Artist, NYFA/NYSCA Choreography Fellow, 2026 NY Support for Artists Grantee, and Danse Mirage Foundation Choreography commissioned artist.
@fulloutfarrish