Wally Cardona

After many years of creating works that demanded highly controlled conditions in order to be made, choreographer Wally Cardona’s current process is one of softly undoing, initiating intimate collaborations where ways of doing can mutate in proximity to others. Choreographic works range from The Set Up: Island Ghost Sleep Princess Time Story Show, a 7-part dance made over the course of six years with dance artists from France, Bali, Java, Cambodia, Myanmar, Okinawa, France and India; to TOOL IS LOOT, resulting from games of aesthetic disorientation, made with Jennifer Lacey and Jonathan Bepler; Interventions 1-7, made from encounters between Cardona and the requests and opinions of a sommelier, astrophysicist, architect, social activist, among others; Really Real, a “people piece” for 100 individuals, including new music by Phil Kline performed by the full Brooklyn Youth Chorus; A Light Conversation, a physical dialogue on aesthetics vs. ethics, love, commitment and sacrifice, made with choreographer Rahel Vonmoos; and Everywhere, a work for five dancers, 400 columns and multiple boomboxes. Honors include a Bessie Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a NYFA Fellowship, an Asian Cultural Council Fellowship, a Creative Capital Award, an inaugural Doris Duke Artist Award, a six-year LMCC Extended Life Residency, a Danspace Project/Robert Rauschenberg Captiva Project Residency, and a Krannert Center Reflective Time Residency. As a performer, he has appeared in multiple works by David Gordon and Deborah Hay and in Matthew Barney’s film, Secondary. Born in California and raised in New Mexico, Cardona lives and works in New York City. @wallycardonax