WAELI WANG (she/her/hers) is a movement artist, filmmaker, and educator. She creates interdisciplinary contemporary works interweaving personal, familial, social, and artistic contexts to investigate the human condition for the concert stage, cinematic screen, and alternative spaces. Her 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 her 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 equity are central to her art-making 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. She currently resides on the unceded territories of the Acjachemen, Tongva, and Kizh, also known as Irvine, California.
SELECTED PROJECTS & AWARDS
CHOREOGRAPHY ---
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
2014 Chandelier. Commissioned by Kelly Yvonne Productions for Girl Next Door, King King Hollywood, CA
2013 Hi-Yah. Juried performance for Colorado Pole Championship, The Oriental Theater, CO
2012 Saeglopur. Juried performance for United States Pole Dance Federation Championship, Symphony Space, NY
FILM ---
Upcoming Kin/tsugi II. Collaboration with Krystal Matsuyama-Tsai. Screendance, digital
Upcoming 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 ---
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
GUEST PRESENTATIONS ---
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 9, podcast 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.