Delia Foley Bio

Ms. Delia Foley

Delia Foley is the current and Founding Artistic Director of the Mohawk Valley Ballet (MVB) she started in 1973 as a place for local ballet dancers to obtain performing experience, a purpose that the MVB still serves to this day.

Ms. Foley is a member of the Royal Academy of Dance, London, England, and holds the A.R.A.D. (Advanced) certificate for performance and teaching. She is also the Royal Academy's first American-born examiner, in which capacity she travels throughout the world testing students in the Royal Academy syllabus and giving master classes to R.A.D. students and teachers.

Ms. Foley studied at the American Ballet Theatre with Robert Joffrey, with Harkness Ballet in Denmark, at Ryerson Polytechnic Institute in Canada and the Royal Academy of Dance in London. She is one of Central New York's most renowned teachers, founding and operating her own school, Ballet Arts by Delia Foley, for more than 35 years. She has trained hundreds of dancers, many of whom have gone on to professional dance careers.

Besides acting as MVB's Artistic Director, Ms. Foley has choreographed many pieces for the MVB, and has worked with Glimmerglass Opera Theater, the Utica Opera, Syracuse University, Manhattan Theatrical Club, Hamilton College and Utica College. She was on the faculty of Hamilton College from 1981-87, and has served several summers as Director of MVB's Summer Dance Experience. She is also on the faculty of the Arts in Education Program through Lincoln Center.