Will Rawls (b. 1978, Boston, MA; lives and works in New York, NY & Los Angeles, CA) is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice encompasses choreography, dance, video, sculpture, works on paper and installation. Rawls is best-known for his choreographic work that employs repetition to explore the limits of language and gesture as tools for staging performances of black presence and becoming. In each area of his practice, Rawls engages humor, absurdity and opacity to reveal the instability of identity and form and to bring ideas, materials and concepts into contact with bodies.
His most recent work [siccer], a dance performance and video installation, premiered at The Momentary (Bentonville, AR) in 2023 and continues on a five-city national tour to MCA Chicago (IL), On the Boards (Seattle, WA) Portland Institute for Contemporary Art (OR) and The Kitchen (New York, NY).
Rawls opened his first solo exhibition of prints and sculpture, Amphigory, at Adams + Ollman Gallery (Portland, OR) in 2022. His prior multi-part installation at the Henry Art Gallery in Seattle, Everlasting Stranger (2021), consisted of a series of performances, a stop-motion animation, wall paintings, and nylon sculptures. He has presented multi-disciplinary work at the Museum of Modern Art, the Hirshhorn Museum, Performa 15, Danspace Project, The Chocolate Factory Theater, High Line Art, REDCAT, the 10th Berlin Biennale, and the Hessel Museum at Bard College.
He has received fellowships and residencies from the Guggenheim Foundation, The Alpert Foundation, the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, the Mellon Foundation, United States Artists, the Rauschenberg Foundation, Creative Capital, New England Foundation for the Arts, National Performance Network, MAP Fund, the MacDowell Colony, Headlands Center for the Arts, Movement Research and several universities and museums. In 2016, Rawls co-curated Lost and Found—six weeks of performances at Danspace Project that addressed the intergenerational impact of HIV/AIDS on dancers, women, and people of color. He lectures widely in academic and community contexts and his writing has been published by the Hammer Museum, MoMA, Museu de Arte de São Paolo, Dancing While Black Journal, Brooklyn Rail and Artforum.
In 2020-2021, he held an appointment as the UC Regents Professor in UCLA’s Department of World Arts and Cultures, and in 2022 he was Lecturer in the New Genres Graduate MFA Program at UCLA School of Arts and Architecture. In 2023, Rawls joined the faculty of UCLA’s Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance as an Associate Professor of Choreography.
Media are the distortions and guesswork that connect us in our search for immediacy; choreography is the collider where these distortions take on human and social dimensions.
CURRICULUM VITAE
EDUCATION
2000 Bachelor of Arts in Art History, Williams College
WORKS
2023 A Phrase That Fits (working title), 35th Bienal de São Paulo, São Paulo, BR
Regular Degular, Counterpublics Triennial, Luminary Arts, St. Louis, MO
[siccer], The Momentary (Bentonville, AR) [premiere], Museum of Contemporary Art (Chicago, IL), Portland Institute for Contemporary Art (Portland, OR), On the Boards (Seattle, WA), The Kitchen (NY, NY)
2022 I make me [sic] (2016/2022), PACE Live (New York, NY)
Amphigory, solo exhibition, Adams and Ollman Gallery, Portland, OR
2021 What Remains, REDCAT, Los Angeles, CA
Everlasting Stranger, solo exhibition, Henry Art Gallery, Seattle, WA
Cursor, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, UK: TBR (to-be-rescheduled)
2020 [sic] tv, public access storefront, Brooklyn, NY
2019 Cursor, Hessel Museum, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY
Cursor, Issue Project Room, Brooklyn, NY
What Remains, with Claudia Rankine, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA
What Remains, with Claudia Rankine, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN
What Remains, with Claudia Rankine, Yale Repertory Theatre, New Haven, CT
See-Saw, with Andros-Zins Browne, The Work Is Never Done, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
2018 What Remains, with Claudia Rankine, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Illinois
What Remains, with Claudia Rankine, Crossing the Line Festival, Danspace Project, New York, NY
Cursor 3: Untitled, Issue Project Room, Brooklyn, NY
Cursor, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.
Uncle Rebus, High Line Art, The High Line Park, New York, NY
Cursor 2: Ditties, Issue Project Room, Brooklyn, NY
The Tony Cokes Remixes No. 1, with Andros Zins-Browne, 10th Berlin Biennial, Berlin, Germany
Sister Spell, The Party, Alpha Dance [short films], New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, NY
Cursor 1: Word Lists, Issue Project Room, Brooklyn, NY
2017 I make me [sic], TBA Festival, Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, Portland, OR
Q&A, Block Universe Festival, Peckham Asylum, London, England
Q&A, The Whitney Biennial, The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
What Remains, with Claudia Rankine, Bard College Fisher Center, NY
2016 HONORARIUM, Kate Werble Gallery, New York, NY
The Planet-Eaters: Seconds, Schauspielhaus, Vienna, Austria
The Planet-Eaters: Seconds, National Museum of the American Indian, New York, NY
A Marvelous Order [opera], with Tracy K. Smith, Judd Greenstein, Joshua Frankel, Williams College, Williamstown, MA
I make me [sic], Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, MA
I make me [sic], Greater New York, MoMA PS1, New York, NY
Personal Effects, Performa 15, Westbeth Artist Housing [Basement], New York, NY
2015 #loveyoumeanit, Platform: Dancers, Buildings and People in the Streets, Danspace Project, New York, NY
A Marvelous Order [opera], with Tracy K. Smith, Judd Greenstein, Joshua Frankel, Three-Legged Dog, New York, NY
Settlement House, Abrons Arts Center, New York, NY
2013 The Planet-Eaters, The Chocolate Factory Theater, New York, NY
2012 A folk tale, or some thoughts on dancing in the dark, Emily Harvey Foundation, New York, NY
Frontispieces, Platform: Parallels, Danspace Project, New York, NY
Dog Three, Dance Gang (with Kennis Hawkins), dOCUMENTA (13), Kassel, Germany
2011 Folk You! Folk Me Too!, Tanzquartier Wien, Vienna, Austria
2010 Census, Mount Tremper Arts, Catskills, NY
2009 Dog Breaks, Dance Gang (with Kennis Hawkins), Dance Theatre Workshop, New York, NY
Dog Free, Dance Gang (with Kennis Hawkins), Summer on the Hudson Festival, New York, NY
SELECTED PERFORMER EXPERIENCE
2022 Dancer, A Gay Bar Called Everywhere, Every Ocean Hughes, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden
2021 Dancer, Transparency, My Barbarian, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
2018 Dancer, Landscapes of I, Björn Säfsten, European Tour: Sweden, Germany
2014 Dancer, Retrospective, Xavier Le Roy, MoMA PS 1, New York, NY
Dancer, Baron Samedi, Alain Buffard, European Tour: France, Germany, Switzerland
2012 Dancer, This Variation, Tino Sehgal, dOCUMENTA (13), Kassel, Germany
Dancer, The Show Must Go On, Jérôme Bel, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
2010 Re-performer, The Artist Is Present, Marina Abramović, MoMA, New York, NY
Performer, This Progress, Tino Sehgal, Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY
Dancer, Big Eater, David Neumann, The Kitchen, New York, NY
2009 “Mockette,” Burning Down The House, David Byrne, Radio City Music Hall, New York, NY
2008 Dancer, Free the Angels, Nicholas Leichter, The Joyce Theater, New York, NY
Dancer, feedforward, David Neumann, Dance Theater Workshop, New York, NY
2005 Dancer, Agora, Noémie LaFrance, McCarren Park Pool, Brooklyn, NY
2004 Dancer, Connect. Transfer., Shen Wei Dance Arts, Lincoln Center, New York, NY
Dancer, Connect. Transfer. & The Rite of Spring, Shen Wei Dance Arts, Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy
SELECTED PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES
2021-2022 Mentor, Queer|Art, New York, NY
2009-2017 Board of Directors, Movement Research, New York, NY
2016 Co-curator, Danspace Project Platform: Lost and Found, New York, NY
2014-2015 Co-editor, Critical Correspondence, Movement Research, New York, NY
2012 Co-curator, Danspace Project Platform: Parallels, New York, NY
2009 Co-curator, Movement Research Spring Festival 2009: ROLL CALL, New York, NY
AWARDS / RESIDENCIES
2023 Artist-in-Residence, Onassis Foundation, Athens, Greece
Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant
The Puffin Foundation Grant
2022 Artist-in-Residence, Headlands Center for the Arts, Sausalito, CA
Artist-in-Residence, The Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center, Troy, NY
Artist-in-Residence, The Momentary, Bentonville, AR
Mellon Foundation Grant
2021 Herb Alpert Award in the Arts for Dance
Creative Capital Award, [siccer]
Artist-in-Residence, Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography, Tallahassee, FL
Artist-in-Residence, Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, Portland, OR
2020 Artist-in-Residence, Onassis Foundation, Athens, Greece
National Dance Project Production Grant, [siccer]
United States Artists Fellowship
National Performance Network Development Fund Award, [siccer]
2019-2020 Mary Mackall Gwinn Hodder Fellow, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ
Artist-in-Residence, Movement Research, New York, NY
2019 Artist-in-Residence, Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography, Tallahassee, FL
Artist-in-Residence, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR
Artist-in-Residence, The Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA
Artist-in-Residency, Gibney Dance Center, New York, NY
National Performance Network Creation Fund Award, [siccer]
2018 Artist-in-Residence, Stephen Petronio Residency Center, Roundtop, NY
Artist-in-Residence, Issue Project Room, Brooklyn, NY
Inaugural Sam Miller Award for Performing Arts Award, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council
MAP Fund Award, [siccer]
2017 John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship
NY Dance and Performance Award (‘Bessie’ Award), Outstanding Emerging Choreographer
Robert Rauschenberg Foundation Residency, Captiva Island, FL
2016 Casinos Austria Prix Jardin d’Europe Award, ImPulsTanz, Vienna, Austria
Artist-in-Residence, Pieter, Los Angeles, CA
2015 Foundation for Contemporary Arts Award
2015-2017 Extended Life Choreographer’s Residency, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, New York, NY
2013 MacDowell Colony Fellowship
2010 Artist-in-Residence, Mount Tremper Arts, Mount Tremper, NY
2009 Artist-in-Residence, Dance Theater Workshop, New York, NY
2008 ImPulsTanz, danceWEB Fellowship, Vienna, Austria
2000 Class Speaker, Williams College Commencement Exercises, Williamstown, MA
Hubbard Hutchinson Memorial Fellowship, Williams College
TEACHING / LECTURES
2022-present Associate Professor, Dept. of World Arts and Cultures/Dance, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA
2022 Lecturer, Dept. of New Genres, Dept. of Art and Architecture, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA
2021 University of California Regents Professor, Dept. of World Arts and Cultures/Dance, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA
2020 Presentation, Within Practice, Stockholm, Sweden
Lecture: “Stopping Dancing: Animation and The Disnegatif,” The Black Embodiments Studio, and Workshop, University of Washington, Seattle, WA
Keynote Speaker: “Stopping Dancing: Animation and The Disnegatif”, Collegium for African Diaspora Dance, Duke University, Durham, NC
2019 Seminar: “Cursor”, Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY
Research and Practice Intensive: “Disnegatif: Undoing Foucault’s Dispositif”, ImPulsTanz, Vienna, Austria
Seminar, MFA Program, Yale University, New Haven, CT
Lecture: “Cursor”, Carpenter Center for Visual Arts, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
Graduate Seminar on Choreography, Dept. Of World Arts and Cultures/Dance, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA
Presentation and Workshop, Dept. of Dance, University of California Riverside, Riverside, CA
Presentation, California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, CA
2018 Lecture: “New York, HIV/AIDS, Then & Now”, Dept. of Performance Studies, New York University, New York, NY
MFA Thesis Advisor and Lecture: “Cursor”, Pacific Northwest College of Art, Portland, OR
Lecture: “Cursor”, The University of Dance and Circus, Stockholm, Sweden
2017 Performance Workshop, Dept. of Visual and Environmental Studies, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
Lecture: “Undoing Bodies Moved By Language”, Arts Research Center, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA
MFA Studio Visits and Lecture, Parsons School of Design, New York, NY
2016 Arthur J. Levitt Artist-in-Residence, Dept. of Dance, Williams College,, Williamstown, MA
2015 - 2016 Mellon Foundation Creative Campus Fellow, Dept. of Dance, Wesleyan University, , Middletown, CT
2014 Workshop, Dept. of Dance, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ
2013 Workshop and Presentation, Dept. of Dance, Williams College, Williamstown, MA
Seminar and Practicum: “Theories of Performance”, Tanzquartier Wien , Vienna, Austria
2012 Seminar on Contemporary Choreography, Dept. of Theater, Colorado College, Colorado Springs, CO
2011 Contemporary Dance Technique, Dept. of Dance, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY
Senior Thesis Mentor, Colorado College Independent Study Program in New York, NY
2010 Adjunct Professor/Resident Choreographer, Dept. of Dance, Barnard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
Rawls, Will, “Stopping Dancing: Lesbian Desire, Black Dance and Stop-Motion Capture.” In Oxford Handbook of Black Dance Studies. Oxford, England. Forthcoming.
Rawls, Will & Lax, Thomas, “Essayons.” In Brooklyn Rail Nov. 2020, Edited by Ralph Lemon. New York, NY, 2020.
Rawls, Will, “Disnegatif.” In Historias de Dança. Edited by Julia Bryan-Wilson and Olivia Ardui. São Paolo, Brasil: Museu de Arte de São Paolo, 2020.
Rawls, Will, “Broomstick.” In This Is Not A Gun, edited by Cara Levine and Vivian Sming. Chicago, IL: Candor Press, 2020.
Rawls, Will. "Contra Bougie Semio." In Who Is Surfing Who?: Adam Linder, edited by Aram Moshayedi. Los Angeles, CA: Hammer Museum, 2018.
Rawls, Will. "Uncle Rebus Poems." In Dancing While Black Journal No. 1. Edited by Nia Austin-Edwards. Website, 2018.
Rawls, Will. "Our Ghosts in the Room: Intersections of Race and Dance Archives in the Age of AIDS." In Bodies of Evidence: Ethics, Aesthetics and Politics of Movement. Edited by Gurur Erten and Sandra Noeth. Vienna, Austria: Passagen Verlag, 2018.
Rawls, Will. "1000 Words." Edited by Mira Dayal. Artforum, October 2018.
Rawls, Will. "To Do You." Edited by Kemi Adeyemi. New York, NY: Recess Gallery, 2017.
Rawls, Will. “I set out in the morning.” RALPH LEMON. Edited by David Velasco. New York, NY: Museum of Modern Art, 2016.
Rawls, Will. "Artists and Identity." Edited by Annie Godfrey-Larmon. Artforum, 2016.
Rawls, Will, Ishmael Houston-Jones, and Jaime Shearn Coan, eds. Lost and Found: Dance, New York, HIV/AIDS, Then and Now. New York, NY: Danspace Project, 2016.
Rawls, Will. "Neighbours, in the Plural." In German Dance Platform. Edited by Sandra Noeth. Berlin, Germany: Goethe Institut, 2016.
Rawls, Will. "Dog Years." In Triple Canopy. Edited by Lizzie Feidelson. New York, NY: Triple Canopy, 2015.
Rawls, Will. "My Lunch with Will." Edited by Noémie Solomon. DANSE: A Catalog, Cultural Services of the French Embassy. Paris, France: les presses du reel, 2015.
Rawls, Will. "Glenn Lowry with Will Rawls in Conversation." In On Value. Edited by Lizzie Feidelson. New York, NY: Museum of Modern Art, Triple Canopy, 2015.
Rawls, Will, and Biba Bell, eds. "THE FRED HERKO DIALOGUES." Critical Correspondence, New York, NY: Movement Research, 2015.
Rawls, Will, and Biba Bell, eds. "THE POST DANCE DIALOGUES" Critical Correspondence, New York, NY: Movement Research, 2015.
Rawls, Will. "Leap of Fake: On Dancing and Doubting." In Scores No. 4: On Addressing. Edited by Sandra Noeth. Vienna, Austria: Tanzquartier Wien, 2014.
Rawls, Will, and Abigail Levine, eds. "Interview with Noémie Solomon." In Critical Correspondence. New York, NY: Movement Research, 2014.
Rawls, Will, and Abigail Levine, eds. "Interview with Ligia Lewis." In Critical Correspondence, New York, NY: Movement Research, 2014.