WELCOME

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

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.

1:1 CREATIVE SUPPORT

I offer creative support, workshops and classes to curious minds of all levels of experience and expression.

When we work together you can expect to deepen your own process and discover new ways to create and expand your work. I’ll design and facilitate pathways, prompts and frameworks customized for you for where you are right now.

I’ll provide support and systems to maintain and sustain yourself as a creative human.

As all work is body based, somatic practices may also be integrated to regulate, sharpen and encourage the flow.

You’ll find me teaching and creating in university, study abroad, art intensive and studio environments, on-site and online.

 

 

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 creative minds of all kinds is my life’s latest work.
I’m dedicated to partnering with curious minds of all levels of experience and expression.
Let’s work together, find me here.

 

RECENT TEACHING & FACILITATING

Ongoing / 1 on 1 Online Sessions
Consultation & Mentoring
Process & Project Support
Interdisciplinary Workshops & Classes
Body Work & Integrative Practices

Semester Guest Faculty
Butler University Internship Program, New York City
A Space for Ideas. Engaging in the Arts in NYC 2019

Semester Guest Faculty
Butler University Internship Program, New York City
A Space for Ideas. Engaging in the Arts in NYC 2018

Semester Residency Guest Artist
Jordan Collage of the Artist, Butler University, seminars, original devised performance

Guest Artist
London Theatre Winter Intensive Butler University

Guest Artist
London Theatre Summer Intensive Butler University
Theater Academy of London / Information Architecture Lab 

Guest Faculty
 Information Architecture – Knowledge Production
Ohio University, Global Theater Institute NYC Summer Program

Guest Artist
Co-instructor with Robert Sember
How am I here?: A Workshop in the Epistemology and Pedagogy of Performance
Ohio University, Global Theater Institute NY Summer Program

{ Request CV }

 

 
 
The New York Times
“Darla Villani’s Pictures Without Proof was just as mystifying but arresting in its strangeness. She moved in the gutsy, direct way of an athlete, but there was nothing direct about the solo, a secret one wanted to know.”
Jennifer Dunning
 
The Boston Globe
“Villani stands for everything esoteric and cutting edge. Her solos are case examples of some choreographic Heisenberg uncertainty principle. You never know which way is up, and apparently, she likes it that way.”
Debra Cash
 
The New York Times
“Run, don’t walk to see and hear, Ursonate, a tour de force performance…”
Anna Kisselgolf
 
Bill T. Jones
“Darla takes risks in ways that are difficult to explain. She has a very original mind. I felt she was a person in the world of dance for the right reasons.”
Bill. T. Jones / The Boston Herald

LET'S WORK TOGETHER

DARLA VILLANI NYC
Artist, Creative Coach & Collaborator
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Creative Strategy Session

Grab a 20 minute Zoom call, my treat.
Identifying challenges, solutions and creative action.

Click here to book your session!

 

WELCOME! Looking forward to seeing you soon.

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