Karla Puno Garcia is currently one of Dance Magazine’s 2024 “25 to Watch.” As a proud Filipina-American artist, Karla emphasizes musicality as a story-telling device and unapologetic individuality to create worlds and bring characters to life. In 2023 she was the first woman of color to choreograph the Tony Awards in a year where there was no script and only dance and music opened the show. Her work is seen in the opening number and the tribute to Joel Grey and John Kander. 

This past spring, she choreographed the Broadway show Days of Wine and Roses, starring Kelli O’Hara and Brian d’arcy James; and the Off-Broadway show The Connector at MCC Theatre composed by Jason Robert Brown. She was the lead choreographer for Starz’s Power Book III: Raising Kanaan season 3, and her work is seen in the Netflix film Tick, Tick … BOOM! directed by Lin Manuel Miranda (additional scenes). Other choreography credits include Noir (The Alley Theatre), Rent (Theatre Aspen), Gone Missing (Encores! Off-Center), Other World (Delaware Theatre Company), Somewhere (Geva Theatre), One Thousand Nights and A Day (Prospect Theatre), and In the Heights (VA Rep, Artsie Award for Best Choreography). She’s also created live event work for Smuggler, Boot Barn, La Liga, Univision, the New York Knicks and more.

Karla began her training in a suburb of Maryland outside of DC under Fran Peters. She also performed Traditional Filipino Dancing with the Pilipino American Cultural Arts Society. Her first professional job was Debbie Allen’s BROTHERS OF THE KNIGHT at the Kennedy Center. She received her BFA in Dance and minor in journalism from NYU’s Tisch School, where she worked closely with Kyle Abraham and Bridget Moore. She then went on to perform in the National Tours Wicked and Addams Family, FOX’s So You Think You Can Dance, NBC’s Smash, Better Nate Than Ever, Annie Live!, and Broadway shows West Side Story, Hot Feet, Gigi, and Hamilton. She created numerous works for Broadway Cares Equity Fights AIDS. In 2016 she directed and choreographed the first-place-winning piece representing Hamilton entitled “America,” and in 2019 she choreographed the show stopping “Lot of Livin’ To Do” for Broadway Backwards starring Ariana Debose.

Her self-produced/directed short films The Spot, They Wake, and Bustin’ Loose have been selected for several dance film festivals including San Francisco Dance Film Fest, LA Dance Film Fest, and DC Dance Film Fest. She is on faculty at Broadway Dance Center and Steps on Broadway, and has taught workshops all around the world.

Coming up … the World Premiere of Darko Tresnjak’s Ask For The Moon at Goodspeed Musicals and Tick Tick… Boom! in Tokyo, Japan.