Shane Farrell is a Rhode Island native whose training started at a family-owned dance school in North Providence, RI. Under the direction of Cheryl Trottier, he received diverse dance education. But it was in his first ever performance of the Nutcracker, re-staged by Myles Marsden (former principal dancer with the Yugoslav National Ballet) that his love for ballet began. He trained under Richard Marsden, Elizabeth Reilly Donabedian and Karla Kovatch before attending the Brae Crest School of Ballet – the official school of the State Ballet of Rhode Island – and performed with the company from 2004-2008.

In 2009, Shane joined the Newport Contemporary Ballet (formerly Island Moving Company), a classically trained contemporary ballet company in Newport, RI. During his ten years at Newport Contemporary Ballet (NCB), he performed in several national tours and two international tours to Kazakhstan. Shane danced in many amazing venues with NCB’s site specific repertoire: Newport Nutcracker at Rosecliff Mansion, Dracula at Belcourt Castle, and Second Star To The Right: A Tale of Hook and Pan aboard the Oliver Hazard Perry tall ship. He has also performed in collaboration with Pasadena Dance Theatre, Missouri Contemporary Ballet, Owen/Cox Dance, Surfscape Contemporary Dance Theatre, Staycee Pearl Dance Project, Houston MET, and Samruk Dance, and danced as a guest artist with companies throughout the northeast. Outside of the concert dance world, Shane has appeared on MTV’s Made, Fox’s So You Think You Can Dance, and the 2010 film Hachi starring Richard Gere.

Shane choreographed six world premieres for NCB and three additional original works for their summer intensive program during the Newport Dance Festival in 2018, 2019, and 2021. His work has been presented nationally and internationally, most notably at the Abay Opera House in Almaty, Kazakshtan. Shane has additionally choreographed for Wheaton College, Salve Regina University, Providence College, Sacred Heart University and has most recently served on faculty at Dean College in Franklin, MA.