Wally Cardona

Wally Cardona is a choreographer, dancer, and the artistic director of WCV, Inc., an artistic organization for Cardona’s projects that was founded in 1997. Beginning his career as a competitive gymnast and clarinetist, Cardona moved to New York City in 1986 to study dance at The Juilliard School and was later invited by Benjamin Harkarvy to attend the Ballet Project at Jacob’s Pillow. In 1992, Cardona presented his first dance work at the Festival International de Danse a Cannes, whereas his second work, Made In Voyage (1995) was performed in seven countries. Cardona has created projects of every scale, ranging from solo pieces to projects such as Really Real, a “people piece” for 100 individuals including the Brooklyn Youth Chorus that took place during the International Festival of Arts & Ideas at Brooklyn Academy of Music in 2009. In recent years, Cardona has been exploring the practice of undoing, which involves collaborative conditions that allow his practice to mutate in proximity to others. In 2011, Cardona and Jennifer Lacey’s year-long collaboration TOOL IS LOOT premiered at The Kitchen, a duet that resulted from encounters with non-dance-related individuals of different professions and aesthetic orientations gathered over the course of a year. Another collaboration with Lacey was The Set Up (2012-17), a series of eight works with additional eight master artists of eight existent dance forms. In 2008, Cardona collaborated with Swiss/British choreographer Rahel Wonmoos to create A Light Conversation, which was a physical dialogue that examined the relationships between aesthetics and ethics, love, commitment, and sacrifice. Cardona’s works have been presented internationally and commissioned by Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, The Joyce Theater, EMPAC and others. His awards include the Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, a New York Fine Arts Artist Award and a New York Dance and Performance “Bessie” Award for the creation of Everywhere in 2006. For more information please visit: http://www.wcvismorphing.org/