C H O R E O G R A P H Y
C H O R E O G R A P H Y
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I create works that reflect vulnerability, discuss socio-political subtexts, involve psychological bridges,
and encompass my background as an Afro-Puerto Rican residing in the South Bronx.
this was and is and will continue to be [I CHOOSE ME] (2025)
A solo for purging. I want to share the experience of grief while saying goodbye. The resonance of preservation is wired due to survival, and the act of protection comes from an attachment only those who value life will express. I am angry at the losses I’ve had so far and these expressions of mine are not reflections of my ineptitude of saving or preventing the loss, but they are my responses to the lack of fault I hold. I am human after all, so guilt will exist within me. The purest form of empathy lies in knowing the pain suffered and that compassion brings tears and frustration. I’ve felt that too many times not to bring it in conversation with dance as my language of choice. Please listen and listen well.
Sounds used:
Kendrick Lamar x Kodak Black - "Mirror"
"So What?" spoken word by Ada Dindi
Transcripted Writing:
"I mourn, I mourn, I mourn. Although you still breathe, I mourn for you. The wrinkles of the bedsheets aren’t embossed with your restlessness. The dents found on the mattress molded by your weight. The smell of your curls and the perfume residue- despite your long showers- linger to spite my senses. Listening to the eclectic sounds of your clumsiness, thoughts, and harmonies of your release; your freedom and liberation shackle me. The phantoms of yesterday whisper like afterimages as memories of your arm hairs prick at the nerves of my fingertips, reminding me of the lack of distance. Now, even the absence of inconveniences confuse me. Me, confused, inconvenienced what should be even in rhythm. Circular reasons for becoming nocturnal was natural. An insomniac lost in perpetuity now voided between intermittent consultation and inconsistent meditation to mend a hymn I dress the silence with before my slumber, wondering if you’re resting again and again with no bother. A soliloquy with no audience, not an endearing ear near, but fear acting as my biggest supporter. Three months and it feels like years. Tears are replaced by the soft kisses delivered to the pillows you retired to. Although you still breathe, I mourn for you. And I miss the kisses I’d give during your snores. That was my ritualistic prayer for your safety and return from the dreams…Is there anyone to do the same for me during this nightmare? I mourn, I mourn, I mourn."
Original work presented at 12x12Dance's fourth showing, curated by Robin Cantrell and Sarah Housepian on November 2nd, 2025
drifters. / my friend. (2025)
This duet explores the difference between love as perception and love as practice. "drifters. / my friend." reflects on the meditative acceptance of distance within an inseparable connection through the act of closure. The truth of love appears in the moments receptive to its practice, rather than projection. The work creates space for two people — strangers, friends, family, or former lovers — to embody this dialogue, leaving their relationship open to interpretation. Yearning is born from the expectation that love must be repeated, but acceptance arrives when you are fulfilled with what has already been given. Lastly, this is a journal entry for me to find the answers I have had questions for when it comes down to my care and devotion. It's natural, it is vulnerable, it is human.
Choreographed and Directed by Kar'mel Antonyo Wade Small
Performed by Charrie Burke and Arnel Wilson
Music: "all is. will be. as it was." by Annahstasia x aja monet // "Moon River" by Frank Ocean
Lighting Design: Anna Wotring
Presented at Triskelion Arts for The "Black Black Black" Week, curated by Beyond the Black Box on September 18th, 2025
Like freeform jazz, my practice involves real-time facilitation—guiding the process without imposing, offering space for
what else may happen. I resist dictating the movement and instead focus on uncovering possibilities within the moment.
o r t o g r a f í a [v. 1] (2024)
A collaborative duet focused on movement-language creation that uses the alphabet to spell out emotions and thoughts of connectivity. Messages are embedded in symbols, characters, and sigils. Using our bodies as paint and the air as our canvas, our gestures form the letters and words that emerge from our experiences and knowledge through semantics and vocabulary. "Ortografía" is Spanish for "orthography," the study of spelling and how letters are used to represent sounds and form words.
Choreographed & Directed by Kar’mel Antonyo Wade Small
In collaboration with Alondra Balbuena & Bella Stenvall
Music by Sam Gendel & Sam Wilkes’s “Welcome” // LITTLE DRAGON’s “Frisco”
Presented at Arts on Site for Arch Danse Ensemble's Second Annual Showcase on July 7th and 8th, 2024
la manta de reina (2024)
A solo performed by Charrie Burke. In 1651, around forty Caribs of Grenada sought escape from French enslavement by sacrificing themselves, jumping a cliff into the ocean. This cliff would be known as The Leaper’s Hill- "Le Morne de Sauteur". Visitors to the cliff will pass a monument of the event and a miniature statue of the Carib Queen. The piece is also a visual metaphor for the Earth as a Queen and the water as her blanket. Ergo, ‘La manta de Reina’, Spanish for “The Blanket of the Queen”.
Choreographed by Kar’mel Antonyo Wade Small
Lighting Designed by Jeremy Burd
Music by Dean Blunt
Special Thanks (from choreographer) to Damani Pompey
Solo dedicated to Kevin Antony Wynn (May 6th, 1956- October 12th, 2023)
Presented at the Dance Theater Lab at Purchase College's Conservatory of Dance as part of GENESIS: a senior project showcase. March 1st & 2nd. Performed once more at the PepsiCo Theater as part of the Purchase Dance Company's Spring Concert, LEGACY. The show included works by George Balanchine, Cain Coleman, Doug Varone, and Kevin Wynn. The solo made its premier for that show on May 3rd, 2024. It was performed again for the 44th Annual Battery Dance Festival in August 2025.
The body language of each person, including my own, is my vocabulary. I translate these physical cues to understand and
communicate more effectively, allowing for a deeper connection with the work, and the space we inhabit is not empty; it is our partner.
giras de anhelo, saudade (2023)
A reflection on what it means to purge denial from the soul, mind, and body to gain acceptance of the present in order to appreciate the essence of the entity and its impact rather than glooming over their form. ‘saudade’, a Portuguese word essentially meaning “a state of emotion that is melancholic or nostalgic with a repressed understanding of never being attached to the object of longing ever again”; ‘giras de anhelo’, roughly translates from Spanish to English as “tours of longing”. Instead of a narrative, allow this cyclical process to be a choice while perception is active: these three are as one, and one as many. 'saudade' expresses the inner state of acceptance and understanding of a beloved form or place no longer becoming tangible; a purging of denial from the soul to the body.
Choreographed by Kar'mel Antonyo Wade Small
Performed by Shannon Harkins, Caleb Patterson, Kendra Borden
Music: “Frenesí” by Linda Ronstadt // “Prayer I” by Teebs // “Diarabi” by Vieux Farka Toure w/ Khruangbin // “Crying in the Chapel” by The Orioles
Presented at PAGEANT for the curated show by Dava Huesca, Evan Sagadencky, and Kar'mel Antonyo Wade Small, CONCERT CONCEPTS, on November 11th, 2023
PSYKLE. II (2022)
A solo in part of the project:MEMORABILIA journal, PSYKLE II introduces the white shadow that exists within all spaces of memory as a haze, fog, cloud of distraction and distortion. It represents the monster that attacks those who long for connection with the intangibility of history. A stark reminder of the fragility humans have when discussing time, and begs the question of whether time is a construct for survival or a distraction from the now.
Choreographed by Kar'mel Antonyo Wade Small
Performed by Hannah Dolen
Music: Psychic Attack by Rod Modell // One Beer by MF DOOM // The Trees Are Starting To Have Personality by Nate Mercereau
Presented at Arts on Site for the curated show by Kar'mel Antonyo Wade Small, AUTONOMOUS, on October 13th, 2022
I want my art to shift perception without demanding submission. I take great pride in the consideration
and practice from my own culture and dance styles that are the foundation for part of my education.
the memory gallery (2022)
A solo that is part of project:MEMORABILIA; I am in a space that reminds me of the guilt I feel when revisiting the memories I thought were lost. I held a standard to skin, flesh, and bone only to lose my comprehension of the spirit. My desire for knowledge kept me from the importance of intimacy, and that was shielded by my longing to remain in the world that kept from anything except freedom. This is my consequence in all its plasticity.
Choreographed & Performed by Kar’mel Antonyo Wade Small
Music by Yusef Lateef
Special Thanks to Jonah Bokaer Arts Foundation & Chez Bushwick
Performance at Chez Bushwick on June 22nd, 2022
PSYKLE. I (2021)
The beginning of the inception being explored. Creating identities with phantoms I've believed to have met in the physical; humanoid pillars for my bridge. The work involves familiarity to oddities that have always existed, but never conversed with.
Choreographed & Performed by Kar’mel Antonyo Wade Small in collaboration with Beatriz Castro & Caleb Patterson
Music by James Blake & Braxton Cook
Special Thanks to Mike Esperanza, Damani Pompey, Kyra Akia Naomi Ferguson, and Michelle Thompson Ulerich.
Performance at Arts On Site on December 19th, 2021
The combination of these two forces cause the language of my movement to have distinguishable characteristics.
My artistic voice culminates in the background of dancesport ballroom, house, jazz, hip-hop, partnering, and contemporary movement.
CHAMAKAY (2021)
Made for fun and in honor of a new friendship.
Choreographed, Directed, and Filmed by Kar’mel Antonyo Wade Small
Performed by Beatriz Castro
Music: "CHAMAKAY" by Blood Orange
NULA Y NULO (2021)
A personal line of trauma involving space and the belief of finding freedom. This work is but a reflection of my mental state drawn in physical form through dance as a medium. The frustration between me and the space’s volume, along with the moments that have aged me, resonates a feeling of repetition. This insidiously trippy aesthetic comes from the influence of that repetition and the drunken desire to escape, but never finding an exit. The phrase “null and void” quintessentially means ‘having no force, power, or validity’. NULA Y NULO is titled with the Spanish translation of the phrase, showing both feminine and masculine uses respectively.
Artist / Editor / Producer / Composer: Kar'mel Antonyo Wade Small
Relaying the information of my heritage and cultural aesthetics within the space without exploiting the care.
I see storytelling as a form of preservation and communication.
PhraseX (2019)
Improvisational solo. For research and self discovery; looking to find the answers for question not yet asked. Using this as a guide for all moments of muddy perspective.
Choreographed, Musically Composed, and Performed by Kar’mel Antonyo Wade Small
Performed at the EMERGE Choreographer Showcase at The Tank: November 2019
When the Arrow Hits (2019)
My second senior project at SUNY Purchase: in dedication of Cupid. The feeling is strong, the sense of vulnerability hits deep, and the quest for partnership through its current stupor are in display. Where is love to be found when the heart is splayed in every direction?
Choreographed by Kar'mel Antonyo Wade Small
Performed by Shota Miyoshi
Music: "Dwa Serduszka" by Joanna Kulig (from the movie 'Cold War')
Presented in May 2019 at the Conservatory of Dance - Dance Theater Lab (SUNY Purchase College)
My heritage is the core of why I dance, rooted in a community where everyone knows
each other and where care and support extend beyond words.
erosion. (2019)
A one minute compilation of my senior project: erosion. A piece that involved topics of memory loss, longing, and the darkness that permeates those who are in support of those suffering with dementia.
Choreographed by Kar'mel Antonyo Wade Small
Performed by Solomon Cort, Devonna Curtis, Chloe Enriquez, Marc Anthony Gutierrez, Madeline Jones, Cori Lewis, Chelen Middlebrook, Candace Vincent
Lighting Designer: Mokshini Gobin
Music/Audio: "Untitled 9" by Djrum // "Blue Genes" by Marvin Hodges (CUPSI Finals 2015) - Courtesy of Button Poetry and Marvin Hodges
Peresented in February 15th and 16th, 2019 at the Conservatory of Dance - Dance Theater Lab (SUNY Purchase College) as part of UNKNOWN: a senior dance concert
secundum / a second to conform (2018)
Inspired by the origin of the phrase "second nature", secundum speaks on the lifestyle many Black bodies endure while displaying comfort through the exhaustion in silence. Our very being acts as an opponent to the normality of life that is forced by way of segregation and supremacy. For the act of survival, Black bodies begrudgingly accept the roles they are taught since birth and the cycle continues. Exploitation, exasperation, and experience come as a bundle once we are born, and the performance for "cool" is nothing but second nature to us all.
Choreographed and directed by Kar'mel Antonyo Wade Small in collaboration with Performers
Performed by Quaba Ernest, Imani Gaudin, Solange Rodrigues
Shot and directed by: Egor Subbotin
Music: "Porz Goret" by Yann Tiersen
Presented in May 2018 and filmed in the Conservatory of Dance - Dance Theater Lab (SUNY Purchase College)
I find storytelling as a satisfying method of redirecting the flow that mirrors life to answer questions in an accessible way.
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