About Cardell Dance Theater

Cardell Dance Theater is a professional ensemble that gathers artists to create innovative and provocative dance performances aiming to dismantle oppression. We are passionately committed to equity, diversity, inclusion, and anti-racist dance practices.

The company was founded as S. Cardell Danza in 1992 in Buenos Aires, based at Sala Ana Itelman and performing in major dance festivals sponsored by Red Latinoamericana de Productores de Danza, Fundacion Antorchas, Instituto Nacional del Teatro and Secretaria de Cultura de la Nacion, among others.  Relocated to Philadelphia in 2009 and renamed as Cardell Dance Theater, the company presented work at the H. Prince Theater, the Annenberg Center of the Performing Arts, The Painted Bride, The Wilma Theater, Christ Church Neighborhood Theater, The Arts Bank, the CEC Theater,  Georgian Court University, Swarthmore College, Mt Vernon Dance Space, Falls Bridge -Philly PARD, New Dance House, New Festival, SDHS at The University of the Arts, The Ice Box at the Crane Building, and at La MaMa in New York City.

Supported by a NEFA – National Dance Project touring grant, Cardell Dance Theater is touring, starting at Black Mountain Museum in North Carolina, then continuing on to the Ferst Center in Atlanta, and the Dance Complex in Massachusetts and at EDANCO, the Dominican Republic, supported by The Mid Atlantic Foundation.

Recently the company received The Philadelphia Cultural Fund, a multi-year grant.

About Silvana Cardell

Silvana Cardell (she/her/hers) is a Philadelphia-based choreographer, director, dancer, and educator.

Passionately committed to equity, diversity, inclusion and anti-racist dance practices, she creates performances that challenge systemic oppression.   

Since 1990,  Silvana has created and presented work in her native Argentina, the US, and internationally. She has been the recipient of numerous fellowships, grants and awards. 

In Argentina, she has received  Premio Fundación Antorchas 2001, Instituto Nacional de Teatro, Secretaria de Cultura de la Ciudad, Red Latinoamericana de Productores de Danza y Teatro, Teatro General San Martin, Presidente Alvear, and Teatro de las Provincias.

In the United States, her work has been funded by Swarthmore College Project, The University of the Arts, Georgian Court University Summer Research Grant, The Pew Center for the Arts & Heritage Project grant and the Philadelphia Cultural Fund, Mid Atlantic Foundation for Arts, and New England Foundation for the Arts, National Dance Project.

Cardell’s work has been commissioned by Group Motion, where she has been a dancer and Manfred Fishbeck’s collaborator  and company co-director from 2004 to 2007. Her work has been  presented at The University of the Arts, Arts Bank, Swarthmore College, Harold Prince Theater at the Annenberg Center of the Performing Arts, Georgian Court University, Mt. Vernon Dance Space, New Festival’s Dance House, New Festival, and Christ Church Neighborhood House, Performed at La Mama, in New York, Black Mountain Museum & Arts Center, London 22, Asheville, North Carolina, The Ferst Center in Atlanta, The Dance Complex in Massachusetts, at EDANCO, Dance Festival, Dominican Republic, Santo Domingo.

Cardell has been a choreographer in five plays directed by  Blanka Zizka’s at Wilma Theater productions.

She holds a BFA in Dance from the University of the Arts and a MFA in Choreography from Temple University.

As an independent artist, a significant part of her artistic practice resides in the university setting where she integrates the arts into the curriculum building audiences on campuses. She trains and educates the new generation of dancers and has been a guest choreographer and a lecturer at Kent State University, Swarthmore College, Universidad de Buenos Aires, and The University of the Arts, among others. Currently she is the Chair of the Dance Program at Georgian Court University, where she has mentored both faculty and students, a new generation of dancer artists who have gone on to professional careers in this field.

My mission is to create imaginative dance. As a female Latinx artist, through my own in-betweenness, I relate to many people that reside in the uncertainty and breadth of the liminal stage. My dance travels with me, moving through territories, my work aims to empower bodies by opening equity, inclusion, defying stereotypes, and creating synergies with audiences.

Living in a time of increasing civic and social justice crisis, and a pandemic, we are facing unprecedented insecurity and precariousness. I firmly believe that artistic expression and imagination are needed to spark essential global change. Addressing these concerns, my artistic work becomes a personal quest; I create performances to comprehend further what is at stake, how to move forward. I examine contemporary issues, aiming to provoke uncomfortable yet urgent conversations and reflections.

As an artist, I feel a responsibility to intensify my creativity to face these problems and seek solutions. I believe that our times call for a new kind of art—one that is open and interactive, designed to energize and encourage new thinking. I find in my body the most powerful voice.

Overextended and in a restless exploration of new horizons, my ever-changing body has defiantly crossed borders. I have moved back and forth between the US and Argentina during the past three decades. Becoming the immigrant “other” has enhanced my awareness of how dislocation, race, nationality, and culture affect how bodies are valued. My performances offer a critical intervention that makes visible neglected causes. I create performances that portray moving bodies resisting and adapting to vast, often unpredictable forces, whether cultural, economic, political, or environmental.

My work explores how private narratives intersect with the collective. Reimagining forces that affect bodies in everyday life, I examine social justice themes such as environmental racism, human displacement, and the bio-politics of “disposable,” exploitable bodies — women, immigrants, and non-human animals.