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. In dialogue with David Gordon since 1994, Wally first appeared in his work as a part of The Matter at MoMA / 2018, performing the original score of the Muybridge solo and the duet Close Up. Two years later, he assisted Gordon in the making of The Philadelphia Matter – 1972/2020, a video performance by a “virtual dance company” of 30 Philadelphia performers. The following year, he was a co-producer and performer in The New Adventures of Old David (What Happened 1978–2021), a video-piece based on Gordon’s 1978 piece What Happened. Cardona’s choreographic work has been recognized with 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 also appeared in multiple works by Ralph Lemon 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