Will Rawls

Will Rawls (b. 1978, Boston, MA) is a choreographer, dancer, and writer whose work unfolds at the edges of sense when dance and language clash. His multi-disciplinary projects focus on how black performance might rescript the visibility and erasure inherent in anti-black perception. He has received fellowships and residencies from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Alpert Foundation, the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Creative Capital, United States Artists, the Rauschenberg Foundation, the MacDowell Colony, and several universities and museums. Recent performances and exhibitions have been presented at the Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, Seattle, WA; Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; MoMA PS 1; New York, NY; PACE LA, Los Angeles, CA; REDCAT, Los Angeles, CA; Hessel Museum, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY; Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN; Yale Repertory Theatre, New Haven, CT. Currently, his work is on view at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Chicago, IL and at the Momentary, Bentonville, AR. In 2016, he 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, and Artforum. Rawls is Associate Professor of Choreography in UCLA’s Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance.