History

Cardell Dance Projects carries forward the long-standing artistic practice of Silvana Cardell and the producing history of Cardell Dance Theater.

In 2025, Cardell assumed leadership of the nonprofit formerly known as Scrap Performance Group, which had been dormant for several years. She renamed it Cardell Dance Projects, giving the organization a renewed mission centered on performance, collaboration, public engagement, and the development of new dance-theater works.

The Company

The artistic history of Cardell Dance Projects reaches back to Buenos Aires, where Cardell founded S. Cardell Danzain 1992. Based at Sala Ana Itelman, the company presented work in major dance festivals with support from Red Latinoamericana de Productores de Danza, Fundación Antorchas, Instituto Nacional del Teatro, and Secretaría de Cultura de la Nación, among others.

After relocating to Philadelphia, Cardell continued her work under the name Cardell Dance Theater. The company became a home for her distinctive approach to contemporary dance theater, bringing together movement, visual imagery, theatricality, social inquiry, and embodied research.

Cardell Dance Theater has performed at venues including the Harold Prince Theater, Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, The Painted Bride, The Wilma Theater, Christ Church Neighborhood House Theater, The Arts Bank, CEC Theater, Georgian Court University, Swarthmore College, Mt. Vernon Dance Space, Falls Bridge / Philly PARD, New Dance House, New Festival, The University of the Arts, The Icebox at Crane Arts, La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club in New York City, and Taller Puertorriqueño.

With support from the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project touring grant, the company toured nationally and internationally, performing at Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center in North Carolina, the Ferst Center for the Arts in Atlanta, The Dance Complex in Massachusetts, the URBN Center Westphal College Black Box Theater at Drexel University, and the Palacio de Bellas Artes at Festival de Danza Contemporánea EDANCO in the Dominican Republic, with additional support from the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation.

Projects developed through Cardell Dance Theater have received support from Swarthmore College, The University of the Arts, Georgian Court University Summer Research Grant, The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, New England Foundation for the Arts / National Dance Project, a NEFA Finalist Award, and the National Endowment for the Arts. The company has also received partial support from the Philadelphia Cultural Fund and a multi-year grant from the City of Philadelphia’s Art in Action Initiative, managed by the Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy.

Today, Cardell Dance Projects carries this history into its next chapter, supporting performances, workshops, public programs, documentation, community engagement, and interdisciplinary collaborations.

Artistic Leadership

Silvana Cardell is an Argentine-born choreographer, dancer, educator, and cultural producer whose work bridges dance, theater, visual art, social inquiry, and embodied research.

Her individual artistic practice has been recognized with major awards and honors, including a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship in Choreography, a Leeway Transformation Award, and support from Fundación Antorchas, among others.

As artistic director of Cardell Dance Projects, Cardell brings decades of choreographic research, teaching, producing experience, and international artistic exchange to the organization.