Yasin (Ya-Ya) Fairley is an independent performane artist currently living and making work in Salt Lake City, Utah. Ya-Ya hails from the concrete jungle of Newark, New Jersey where they were born and raised. 

Ya-Ya recently received their Masters of Fine Arts in Modern Dance from The University of Utah in 2016, while continuing their career as a dancer, choreographer and critical thinker. 

They recently self-designed a course entitled, "Performance, Theory & Cultural Practices" in Spring 2016, which looked at Performance Studies, Gender Studies & Ethnic Studies. 

Ya-Ya received their Bachelors of Arts from Bates College, Lewiston Maine in 2012. They studied Cultural Anthropology, Modern Dance with a concentration in   Gender/Queer Studies. 

Ya-Ya is also certified as a Social Justice Advocate through The Inclusion Center for Community & Justice Utah. 

Highlights of Ya-Ya's previous training include intensives with Repertory Dance Theatre (Salt Lake City, Utah), Salt Dance Fest (SLC, UT), Bates Dance Festival (Lewiston, ME) and Contemporary Systems w/ Sidra Bell (NYC). 

In 2016, Ya-Ya's MFA research project was  commissoned by Weber State University for their annual Black History Month Celebration.

Ya-Ya has faciliated workshops at various conferences including The Gender Revolution Conference (Rowland Hall SLC) and The Conference on Diverse Excellence (University of Utah, SLC). 

As an artist-activist, Ya-Ya has spoken at a Black Trans Lives Matter March in downtown Salt Lake and BTLM panel at Westminster College, SLC. 

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