Cardell Dance Theater restaged “Disposable Bodies” for the Wilma Theater’s proscenium stage, expanding the work’s breadth and depth in ways that last year’s white box premiere at Taller Puertorriqueño could only partially provide. Yury Urnov, who recently became the Wilma’s artistic director as Zizka takes her final bows, saw last year’s premiere and invited Cardell and Zizka to bring it to the proscenium stage. There, they took full advantage of the technologies the newly renovated Wilma afforded. The original production was funded and presented by an NEA grant through Terry Fox’s Philadelphia Dance Projects. This production also received support from Bryn Mawr College Performing Arts Series and Dance Department where it was previewed earlier in the week.

The Czech-born Zizka co-founded the original Wilma not long after emigrating to the United States decades ago and presided over its remarkable growth to become Philadelphia’s premiere jewel box theater on the Avenue of the Arts. She retires as artistic director with this show and droves of audience came to wish her farewell.

A Guggenheim Fellow and Pew Center Grantee, Cardell also emigrated to Philadelphia decades ago, and says, “My Latin American heritage and in-between-ness—living at the crossroads—of places and cultures subtly but profoundly shape my choreography. This cultural influence shows in the design of intimate partnering, the rhythmic development, the architecture of the space, and the social justice-infused themes of my performances.”