The Team

Azure Brown is a Native East Austinite and graduated from Texas State in 2013 with a Master of Science in Interdisciplinary Studies. Azure is a Certified Records Manager for a Local Government and a Board Member of Austin ARMA, a local organization for Records Managers. She majored in Dance at Austin Community College, where Allison Orr was one of her dance instructors. They have maintained a relationship since and Azure has enjoyed working on Forklift projects including Play Ball (2014) and Givens Swims (2019). Azure is an Imagineer with a focus in fashion and beauty. She is also happily married with children and a toy poodle.

You can reach Azure at azure_brown@yahoo.com.

Fabiola Torralba was born in Guerrero, Mexico and was raised in the Westside of San Antonio, Texas. Trained as a cultural worker and grassroots organizer, they engage art making as a transformative practice for building community, civic engagement, and social-cultural awareness. Fabiola is guided by a deep conviction in experienced based knowledge and the power of people coming together to inspire social change. Her research explores intersectional politics, decolonial epistemologies, and (im)migrant identities. They enjoy facilitating dance making opportunities for movers of all backgrounds and interdisciplinary collaborations that explore the intersection between performance and action.

You can reach Fabiola at fabiola@forkliftdanceworks.org.

Matt Crawford is an actor and singer from Austin, TX. Matt is a rising senior at Wake Forest University, majoring in Theatre. After his internship with Forklift in the summer of 2019, Matt will return to Wake Forest and continue working with Forklift on the “From the Ground Up” project, premiering in October.

You can reach Matt at Matthew@forkliftdanceworks.org.

Lilley Gallagher is a ballet dancer and environmentalist from Vero Beach, Florida. She currently attends Wesleyan University and is planning to major in Environmental Studies and Dance. At Wesleyan, Lilley works as an Eco-Facilitator advocating for increased environmental consciousness and aiming to implement sustainable behavior change through community projects. In the fall of 2018, Lilley worked alongside Forklift in a job shadowing project with the Physical Plant staff at Wesleyan.

You can reach Lilley at lilley@forkliftdanceworks.org.

Arturo Hernandez is a singer and actor from Austin, TX. He is going into his senior year at Molloy College/CAP21 in New York City, working toward a BFA in Musical Theater. As an Artistic Intern with Forklift on Givens Swims, he is excited to be working with the community he grew up in.

You can reach Arturo at arturogh9720@gmail.com.

Tamara Rivera is an environmentalist who has a passion for social justice and community building. Tamara is from Holyoke, Massachusetts and is a rising junior at Wesleyan University where she double majors in Biology and Environmental studies. With Forklift, Tamara has participated in an on campus project where she shadowed physical plant workers and created a performance with the choreography from their everyday lives.

You can reach Tamara at tamara@forkliftdanceworks.org.

Called “the quintessential modern composer” by the London Independent, Austin-based composer-bandleader-improvisor Graham Reynolds creates, performs, and records music for film, theater, dance, rock clubs and concert halls with collaborators ranging from Richard Linklater and Jack Black to DJ Spooky, the Rude Mechs and Forklift Danceworks.

Heard throughout the world in films, on TV, on stage, and on radio, from HBO to Showtime, Cannes Film Festival to the Kennedy Center, and BBC to NPR, he’s scored HBO’s “The Diplomat”, “Before Midnight” with Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy, “Bernie” featuring Jack Black, the Rooster Teeth TV series “Day 5”, and many more. His score to the Robert Downey, Jr. feature “A Scanner Darkly” was named Best Soundtrack of the Decade by Cinema Retro magazine.

With the jazz-based but far reaching Golden Arm Trio, Reynolds has repeatedly toured the country and released four critically acclaimed albums. As Co-Artistic Director of Golden Hornet Project, Reynolds has produced more than fifty concerts of world-premier alt-classical music by more than sixty composers, as well as countless pieces of his own. He is a company member with the internationally acclaimed Rude Mechs, resident composer with Salvage Vanguard Theater, and works regularly with Forklift Danceworks and Ballet Austin.

Reynolds last released two albums simultaneously: “The Difference Engine: A Triple Concerto” and “DUKE! Three Portraits of Ellington” on Innova Records with distribution by Naxos, the world’s biggest classical label. His awards include a Creative Capital Award, an Independent Music Award, Lowe Music Theater Award, eight Austin Critic’s Table awards, the John Bustin Award, an Amp Award, seven Austin Chronicle Best Composer wins, and a B. Iden Payne Award. His current work-in-progress is a multi-year three part commission from Ballroom Marfa titled “The Marfa Triptych”, a portrait of deep West Texas that Vogue Magazine described as “beautiful and raucous”. Find out more at grahamreynolds.com.

Stephen Pruitt has been working as a photographer, designer, writer, director and performer since getting his first camera in high school. After studying Aerospace Engineering at the University of Cincinnati, he switched directions by spending two years at Ensemble Theater of Cincinnati working under several well know directors and playwrights, including Lee Blessing, Edward Albee and Rebecca Miller. Shortly after, he began designing lighting and sets and became interested in dance, becoming the resident designer for Cincinnati’s Contemporary Dance Theater, where he worked with many nationally known Dance groups and choreographers including Parsons Dance, Urban Bush Women, Doug Varone, David Dorfman and many others.

Since moving to Austin in 1997, Stephen has worked as a freelance Lighting, Scenic, and Video designer, collaborating with many of Austin’s biggest and most creative theater and dance groups including Forklift Danceworks, Tapestry Dance Company, Kathy Dunn Hamrick Dance (as resident production designer for all three), Trouble Puppet Theater (resident lighting designer), and Rude Mechs (company member) as well as Andrea Ariel Dance Theatre, Conspirare, Scottish Rite Theater, Salvage Vanguard Theater, Physical Plant Theater, and St Edwards University. His company, Fluxion Scenic and Light, has produced and designed many seminal Austin events, including Austin Film Society’s Texas Film Hall of Fame Awards, the Mayor’s party at City Hall for First Night, and opening night parties for Cirque du Soleil’s first two Austin Premieres. In addition to his work in Austin, Stephen tours and travels frequently and also produces performance work through Catastrophe Theory Arts.

Stephen has received many nominations and awards from Austin’s critics and arts community including each of his collaborations with Forklift, and is the only designer in Austin to be nominated for Critic’s Table and B. Iden Payne Awards in both the Scenic Design and Lighting Design categories, and his work is routinely recognized in the many end of year top ten lists. In the past couple years, Stephen has been spending more time on his photography work, with recent shows at Prizer Arts and Letters, and Link & Pin Gallery. All of his work in various media can be found at www.stephenpruitt.net

Nancy Bain has been a dance educator for 40 years, teaching in public and private schools, studios, community centers and universities. She was a licensed dance teacher for NY City Board of Education, teaching at LaGuardia High School for Performing Arts, as well as in elementary and middles schools. She taught at Queensborough Community College and The Brooklyn Arts Exchange, and was a teaching artist for 3 schools for students with special needs. In NY, Nancy performed with several modern dance companies and directed her own professional company, IdeaDance, for 13 years. In Austin, she coordinates the VSA & Forklift Danceworks “BODY SHIFT KIDS! Dance for Children with Special Needs”, and has been a teaching artist for VSA in K and PPCD classes. She also teaches at The Dance Gallery/Round Rock. In January 2013, she started the “Dancing with Parkinson’s” programs for people with Parkinson’s in Austin and Georgetown. Nancy holds a M.A. degree in Dance Education from New York University and was a Parent Support Specialist for Round Rock ISD from 2006-2011.

Alyson Dolan was recognized by The Austin Chronicle as a “key modern mover” for the “stamina, concentration, and big jar of real that she brings to the potluck.” As a dance artist and avid collaborator, she has presented her choreography at festivals, theaters, schools, parks, islands, and creeks throughout the country. Alyson was Resident Choreographer for Sarasota Contemporary Dance from 2012-2014 and continues to create work with the Florida-based company on a project basis, and regularly presents her work in Austin. She has received two Austin Critics Table awards (Outstanding Dancer 2014, Outstanding Duet 2015), as well as the Jerry MacLauchlin Best in Fest award (254 Dance-Fest). Dolan is on faculty at St. Edward’s University and Hamrick/Warren, a professional modern dance studio housed at Cafe Dance. She has also served on the dance faculty at Texas State University, St. Petersburg College, and Booker High School as well as fulfilled multiple teaching and choreographic residencies. Alyson admires the originality of Austin’s artists and feels honored when given the opportunity to add to the spread.

Yvonne Keyrouz, a choreographer and performer, received her B.A from the Texas Woman’s University Department of Dance. She is a Teaching Artist for Leaps & Bounds and served as Assistant Choreographer and Rehearsal Assistant for Forklift Danceworks’ most recent production, RE Source.

Yvonne has created and performed work for many Texas dance festivals such as Bailando, The Cohen New Works Festival, Big Range, and the American College Dance Festival. Yvonne has completed an internship with Deborah Hay, conducting research for the Solo Commissioning Project and has attended the American Dance Festival twice, once as a student and once in a work-study position. In the summer of 2014 Yvonne participated in the Summer Institute at Dance Exchange as a scholarship student and later attended the Facing Race Conference in Dallas with the Dance Exchange team. She received her certification as a Labor Support and Postpartum Doula from Doula Trainings International and is interested in exploring birth activism in her future choreographic projects. Her other interests include painting, ongoing pranks with her sister and three brothers, and watching Lilo and Stitch on a weekly basis.

Roman Christian Morgan is a Teaching Artist with Forklift Danceworks. He began his dance training at Austin Community College and soon earned his BFA in Dance from Texas State University where he was a member of Merge Dance and Opening Door Dance Company. Roman has also studied Music and Theatre with faculty and guest artists at both Tarleton State University and Baylor University on Scholarship. Roman is the recipient of the Joan Hays, Opening Door Dance Theatre, Austin Community College Fine Arts, and Galaxy Dance Studio Scholarships. He has performed with Sally Jacques’ Blue Lapis Light, Allison Orr Forklift Danceworks, Charles Anderson, Kate Warren and in works by Darla Johnson. Roman is in his fourth season with the award-winning Kathy Dunn Hamrick Dance Company as a full time artist. Roman is currently a Learning Assistant/Substitute Teacher for Austin Community College in the Office of Students with Disabilities and Fine Arts Program. Roman has been the resident co-choreographer for Austin Community College Summer Dance Informance Showcase since 2010 under the mentorship of Darla Johnson. Roman has taught and choreographed Dance for Bowie High School, American College Dance Festival, and privately working with novice dancers, musicians, and actors in the community. Roman is delighted to be with Forklift Danceworks as a Teaching Artist!

Francis Rodriguez is a performer and dance educator currently based in Austin, Texas. She is a graduate of The University of Texas at Austin’s UTeach Dance program and holds a Bachelors of Fine Arts in Dance. While at UT, Francis both performed and choreographed works with Dance Repertory Theatre, Dance Action, and the Cohen New Works Festival. She also served as Chair of the College of Fine Arts’ UTeach Fine Arts Council for two years. Most recently, Francis was an Artistic Intern for Dove Springs Swims/Nadamos Dove Springs. She now teaches dance at The Dance Gallery, 620 Dance Centre, and through Forklift Danceworks’ Leaps & Bounds program.

You can reach Francis at francis@forkliftdanceworks.org.