ABOUT

Hello, I’m Darla Villani, a New York-based interdisciplinary artist, educator, creative coach and your trusted collaborator.

My thirty year professional trajectory is marked by a history of deep artistic practice with visual art, dance, performance, directing, devising theatre, music and writing as single disciplines and as interdisciplinary practice.

Notable collaborations include Bill T. Jones and invitations by Robert Wilson. Highlighted awards include a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship in Choreography and a MacDowell Residency Fellowship for Interdisciplinary Research.

As an educator, I have cultivated safe and vibrant creative environments for emerging and seasoned artists to invent and build their deepest work and self.

EXPERIENCE

I began as a painter at the Art Institute of Boston and Massachusetts College of Art. After receiving a B.F.A, exhibiting work and teaching, in mid swing I followed a deep desire to purse dance and choreography for three summers at Harvard’s Dance Program. Soon after NEA grants, residencies, and commission followed. Highlights include a Guggenheim Fellowship in Choreography. My dance work as a soloist has been shown at The Joyce Theatre, Dance Theatre Workshop, The Kitchen and International venues.

Career highlights include an invitation from Bill T. Jones to collaborate in the creation and performance of a premiere work for his company called, Ursonate. I was the first collaborator invited into the company since his partner, the late Arnie Zane.

Robert Wilson has also extended several invitations to participate in the development of new projects at the Watermill Center including Death,Destruction in Detroit III, Barcelona Point, and notably working with Dominque Sanda on Wilson’s adaption of The Lady From The Sea.

MacDowell invited me as a resident artist for an Interdisciplinary Research Fellowship to draft WILDLIFE, a book.
WILDLIFE was listed as finalist for the 2019 Zone 3 Press Creative Non-Fiction Book Award.

Working with Artists to empower them to find their voice, avoid stagnation and bring their ideas to life is my life’s latest work.
Let’s work together, find me here.