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WAELI WANG (she/they) is a movement artist, filmmaker, and educator. They create interdisciplinary contemporary works interweaving personal, familial, social, and artistic contexts to investigate the human condition for the concert stage, cinematic screen, and alternative spaces. Their research explores the overlap between critical dancemaking and identity to transform and challenge unjust social relations while filling in the gaps of our collective memory. She is driven to make work that fuses movement/imagery, figurative/abstract, and the poetic personal. Wang has toured internationally as a guest artist performing and teaching master classes in aerial dance forms and their collaborative interdisciplinary choreography and films have shown in internationally curated performances and screenings over the last decade. Cultivating community, experiential learning, and a dedication to justice are central to her artmaking practice and teaching philosophy.

 

Wang holds an MFA degree in Dance from the University of California, Irvine & a BFA in Film Studies from the University of Colorado at Boulder. They currently reside on the unceded territories of the Acjachemen, Tongva, and Kizh, colonially known as Irvine, California.

SELECTED PROJECTS & AWARDS

CHOREOGRAPHY ---

2024        I Crossed an Ocean for You, premiered at International Women's Day Dance Festival, 

2022        Run. MashUp Choreography Residency 2022, CA

2022        Scattered into Earth. Commissioned by Orange County Ballet Theatre, in collaboration with Krystal Matsuyama-Tsai, CA

2021        Disintegration. Commissioned by Orange County School of the Arts, CA

2021        When, where does it end? Crafton-Pryor Theatre, University of Kansas, KS

2021        Of Cotton and Shale. Commissioned by Flatlands Dance Theatre, Solo Series, TX

2020        Unsaid Sorrows. Collaboration with Katherine Lingle and Sophia Vangelatos, Synthesis VII, CA

2020        Unraveling Silk: Ethereal Incantations. Louis B. Mayer Theatre, Santa Clara University, CA

2019        Big Hand. Collaboration with Morgan Embry, Experimental Media Performance Lab, University of California, Irvine

2019        Skin We Wrought. MFA Thesis Work, Experimental Media Performance Lab, University of California, Irvine

2019        Inherited. Claire Trevor Theatre, University of California Irvine

2019        Speak Memory. American College Dance Association: Baja, Adjudicated Concert, CA

2018        Living in the Tempest. Contributing Choreographer in collaboration with RISD, Irvine Barclay Theatre, CA

2017        The Streets are Burning. Claire Trevor Theatre, University of California, Irvine

2016        Danger Signals. Commissioned by Built for Collapse for Prelude Festival, Segal Center, NY

2016        Suspiria Dance Installation. Commissioned by The Creators Collective, Videology Bar & Cinema, NY

2016        Mother. Multiple exhibitions. Movement Research Lab, Eden’s Expressway, NY; WAXworks, Triskelion Arts, NY; 8 in Show, Dixon Place, NY

2016        Undead. Commissioned by Haruna Lee Theater Company, La Mama Experimental Theater Club, NY

2015        Hideaway. Contributing Choreographer for Rogue Co. Dance Company, Dairy Center of the Arts, CO

FILM ---

Upcoming Body Dissipates, Light Remains. Collaboration with Grant Speich and Monica Stephens. Experimental screendance, 16mm and digital

2024        her spine, the mountains. Screendance, digital.

2022        Nostalgia’s Window. Collaboration with Charlotte Griffin and Grant Speich. Screendance, digital

2020        Chá Sī / Chasm. Experimental screendance, digital

2020        985. Experimental short, digital

2019        Calligraphy. Experimental short, 16mm, India ink

2018        Kinship. Screendance, digital

2017        A Study on Decay. Documentary, digital

2015        My Dear Miss Claire. Commissioned music video for Whiskey Autumn in collaboration with Grant Speich, Super 8 & digital

2013        What Weighs Me Down. BFA Thesis Film, 16mm

2013        Grace. Screendance, 16mm

2012        Then. Short film, 16mm

AWARDS ---

2020        Dance Cinema Award Chá Sī / Chasm, FROSTBITE International Indie Fest, Colorado Springs, CO

2020        Best Experimental Film for 985, Eurasia International Monthly Film Festival, Moscow, Russia

2019        Elizabeth Koehler Scholarship, Department of Dance, Claire Trevor School of the Arts, University of California, Irvine

2018        Dean’s Scholarship Award, Claire Trevor School of the Arts, University of California, Irvine

2018        Sylvia Reines Scholarship, Department of Dance, Claire Trevor School of the Arts, University of California, Irvine

2018        Graduate Research Award, “Asian Americans and Artistry,” Research & Travel Committee, University of California, Irvine

2014        Choreographer Cup Award for John Wayne Gacy, Jr., Pole Sport Organization

2014        Virgil Grillo Award for What Weighs Me Down, First Person Cinema, International Film Series, University of Colorado at Boulder

2013        Championship Award & Most Artistic Award for Hi-Yah, Colorado Pole Dance Championship

2013        Goldfarb Award, Department of Film Studies, University of Colorado at Boulder

TEACHING ---

2023 - present    Dance Faculty, Department of Dance, Saddleback College, Mission Viejo, CA

2021 - present    Dance Faculty, Department of Dance, Cypress College, Cypress, CA

2023 - 2024        Visiting Lecturer, Department of Dance, Scripps College, Claremont, CA

2020 - 2021        Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Theatre & Dance, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS

2019 - 2020        Guest Choreographer, Department of Theatre & Dance, Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, CA

2018 - 2019        Teaching Associate, University of California, Irvine

CONFERENCE & GUEST PRESENTATIONS ---

2023        Conference Presentation and Workshop, "Bringing Our Whole Selves: Dance and Identity." NDEO 2023 National Conference. Teaching is Leading:

                Embracing our Impact & Opportunity as Dance Educators.

2022        Conference Panel, "Emerging Perspectives." State of the Art: International Symposium on Screendance. Hosted by University of Wisconsin-

                Madison.

2021        Conference Presentation and Workshop, "Embody Communal Practices & Cultivating Personal Pedagogy." Dancing with Decolonization, hosted

                by Global Dance Conference and University of Roehampton.

2021        Artist Lecture and Workshop, "Screendance as Transformative and Culturally Provocative." Hosted by Texas Tech University.

2020        Artist Lecture and Workshop, "Eco-Anxiety Workshop: Uncertain Futures, Climate Grief, Healing Breath & Our Changing Season."

                Hosted by tUrn at Santa Clara University.

2020        Interviewee, "Waeli Wang - Movement Artist, Educator, and Identity Theorist." Count 9podcast interview with Benjamin Goodman.

2020        Artist Discussion, "Identity through Movement: Dance and Social Justice Frameworks." Hosted by Asian American Pacific Islander Womxn in          

                Leadership in partnership with Academic and Professional Women and UCI Digifilm.

SELECTED TEACHING & GUEST PRESENTATIONS
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