Will Rawls

Will Rawls is an American contemporary choreographer, performance artist, curator and writer based in New York City and with continuing projects in Europe. He has choreographed solo works and group works as well as danced professionally with established dance companies. He is also one half of the performance art collaborative, Dance Gang, with Kennis Hawkins.^[1]

Selected Shows

• "The Planet Eaters." The Chocolate Factory, with musician Chris Kuklis.^[2][3]
• "A folk tale, or some thoughts on dancing in the dark." A reading/performance at the Emily Harvey Foundation.^[4]
• "Folk You! Folk Me Too!," a lecture performance on folklore at Tanzquartier Wien.^[5]
• "Frontispieces." Danspace Project^[6]

Writings

• "Leap of Fake" an essay on dance and doubt by Will Rawls in 'SCORES N°4: on addressing' the biannual publication of Austria's Tanzquartiers, a think tank, residency space and presenter for contemporary dance.^[7]
• "Dispatch from dOCUMENTA (13): Will Rawls in Conversation with Thomas J. Lax" from The Studio Museum of Harlem^[8]
• "Lindsay Benedict in conversation with Will Rawls" in Critical Correspondence.^[9]
• "Megan Byrne, Michael Mahalchick, Will Rawls, and Regina Rocke in conversation with Levi Gonzalez" in Critical Correspondence.^[10]
• "Milka Djordjevich, Nohemà Montzerrat Contreras, Sarah Beth Percival, Will Rawls, and Otto Ramstad in conversation with Alejandra Martorell" in Critical Correspondence.^[11]

Will Rawls is currently the co-editor with Abigail Levine at Critical Correspondence, a web publication of the Center for Movement Research.^[12]

Performed with

• Shen Wei Dance Arts, as a dancer in "The Rite of Spring" for the Venice Biennale and in "Connect. Transfer.," at Lincoln Center Festival.^[13]
• Nicholas Leichter Dance, as a dancer in "Free the Angels" at Joyce Theatre.^[14]
• Tino Sehgal, as a dancer and interpreter for “This Progress,” performed at the Guggenheim Museum and "This Variation" performed at Documenta 13 in Kassel, Germany.^[15]
• Marina Abramovic as a re-performer in "The Artist Is Present" at the Museum of Modern Art.^[16]
• Jérôme Bel, as a dancer in "The Show Must Go On" performed at the Museum of Modern Art.^[17]
• Alain Buffard, as a dancer for "Baron Samedi" toured in Europe and the USA.^[18]
• Noemie LaFrance, a dancer in Agora at McCarren Pool in Brooklyn, NY.^[19][20]
• Davide Balula, as a dancer in "The Endless Pace" for Performa 09.^[21]

Curatorial

• "Roll Call" Movement Research Festival 2009^[22]
• "The Protagonists and Coining", video screenings and essays on black performance, postmodern dance and YouTube serials^[23]

Collaboration

Dance Gang is an American performance art duo made up of Will Rawls and Kennis Hawkins started in 2006 in New York City.

The two, both over six feet tall, met in 2004 as fellow dancers in Shen Wei Dance Arts and then started their own project. Dance Gang began with playful dance interventions in public spaces and then continued into short and full-length site-specific choreographed works.^[24] They performed an hour-long site-specific work, "Dog Free" in the River to River Festival in 2009,^[25] shorter works with Neal Medlyn,^[26] a performance to Beyoncé's 'All the Single Ladies' at Joe's Pub,^[27] and to Kanye West's "Bad News" track from 808 and Heartbreaks,^[28] a work at the Ise Cultural Foundation as part of "In Pursuit: Art on Dating,"^[29] and others.

External links

Triple Canopy's presentation of Will Rawls' work with scholar and Performa associate curator Adrienne Edwards to discuss relationships between objects, animal figures, and blackness in performance.^[30]

References