The Team

From sanitation workers to firefighters, Venetian gondoliers to professional baseball players, power linemen to forestry technicians, Allison Orr creates award-winning choreography with unlikely performers. Inspired by the beauty and virtuosity in the practiced, habitual movement of labor, Allison’s dances feature the often-overlooked choreography of work that sustains our everyday lives. Building on her background in anthropology and social work, over the past 20 years Allison has honed a methodology of ethnographic choreography that engages community members as co-authors and performers in the creation of large-scale civic spectacles. Challenging audiences to expand notions of dance and performer, her dances have been performed for audiences of 60 to 6,000+.

In recent years, Allison has been named a 2020 MacDowell Fellow, a 2019 Dance | USA Fellow in Social Change, a 2018 Doris Duke United States Artist Fellow, Best Choreographer of 2016, 2017, and 2018 by The Austin Chronicle, Most Outstanding Choreographer of 2003, 2008 and 2013 by the Austin Critics Table, one of Tribeza Magazine’s Top 10 Austinites, and one of eight “Extraordinary Texans” by Texas Highways Magazine. Her large-scale work The Trash Project was named a #1 Arts Event by the Austin American-Statesman, #1 Dance Event by The Austin Chronicle, Most Outstanding Dance Concert by the Austin Critics Table. It is also the subject of a feature-length documentary film entitled Trash Dance.

Allison has been commissioned three times by the Fusebox Festival and was the single US choreographer selected by the Kyoto Arts Center as part of the National Performance Network’s Asian Exchange program in 2015. A guest artist for numerous dance programs including Williams College, Wake Forest University, the University of Maryland, and Texas A&M, Allison was a Melon Foundation Creative Campus Scholar at the Center for the Arts of Wesleyan University in 2014/15. Allison gives frequent lectures and talks, and was the keynote speaker at the 2015 Texas Commission on the Arts statewide conference. Her work has been funded by the City of Austin, the Texas Commission on the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Mid-America Arts Alliance, the MAP Fund, The New England Foundation for the Arts, Engaging Dance Audiences/Dance USA, numerous foundations, and the City of Venice, Italy.

Currently a Distinguished Fellow of the College of Environment at Wesleyan University, Allison directed 2016’s The Artist in the City — a hands on course in her community-based dance-making practice where Wesleyan students embedded within the local water/wastewater department to create collaborative artistic projects with city employees. Allison has also taught children, adults over 65, and people with disabilities. Before founding Forklift Danceworks, Allison danced and studied with Deborah Hay and MacArthur Award winner Liz Lerman. Allison is a native Texan and holds an MFA in Choreography and Performance from Mills College and a BA in Anthropology from Wake Forest University.

You can find and follow Allison on Twitter.

Working in the mediums of dialogue, participation, and collaboration, Krissie Marty makes dances with people who aren’t traditionally considered dancers.  As Associate Artistic Director of Forklift Danceworks, she most often engages city employees in dance-making. She created and directed RE Source, featuring the employees and machinery of a Goodwill recycling warehouse, and co-directed with Allison Orr Served, a dance for Williams College Dining Services staff; The Trash Project Rotterdam as a commission for the International Community Arts Festival, PowerUP featuring employees of Austin’s electrical utility; Play Ball Downs Field on a historic Negro League baseball field; Afoot! a marching band extravaganza in Houston’s East End; The Trees of Govalle featuring employees of Austin’s Urban Forestry Program and Govalle neighborhood residents as well as conceiving of and co-directing the multi-year project My Park, My Pool, My City, dances for city pools and their people, including Bartholomew Swims, Dove Springs Swims / Nadamos Dove Springs, and Givens Swims.

Krissie’s community-based choreography has been made in partnership with Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, The Kennedy Center, Stratford Circus (London), Chateau de Cazals (France), and Adugna Dance Company (Ethiopia). Krissie worked as a faculty member and choreographer with the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange for over a decade. She choreographed movement for theatre with Big Art Group (NYC and international tours), Washington Shakespeare Company, and Imagination Stage (DC). Krissie has worked with countless artists, teachers, and students at Jacob’s Pillow Curriculum in Motion, Wolf Trap Institute for Early Learning Through the Arts, the Pediatric Unit at Georgetown Medical Center, and in home health/hospice care centers.

You can find and follow Krissie on Twitter or Instagram.

Gretchen LaMotte (she/her) is a community-based performance maker, facilitator, and arts administrator. Born and raised in New Jersey, she received a BA in Science in Society from Wesleyan University with concentrations in Psychology and Feminist, Gender, & Sexuality Studies and a Certificate in Environmental Studies. At Wesleyan’s Center for the Arts, Gretchen worked for the Creative Campus Initiative, Zilkha Gallery, and the Institute for Curatorial Practice in Performance. With Forklift, she has collaborated on The Artist in the City (2016), My Park, My Pool, My City (2017-2019), Served — Williams College (2018), and From the Ground Up (2019).

Fabiola Torralba is an immigrant who was born in the Costa Chica of Guerrero, Mexico and raised in San Antonio, Texas. Her experience as a social justice activist, grassroots organizer, cultural arts worker, and community engagement coordinator has led to creative collaborations with artists, schools, galleries, and non-profit organizations for dancers ranging from inner city youth to seniors, refugees, Spanish speakers, LGBTQ groups, and fine arts students. Their work has ranged from workshops, to public dance actions, performance installations, concert dance, and theater productions supported by Jump-Start Performance Company, Lady Base Gallery, Gallista Gallery, Esperanza Peace and Justice Center, Mexic-Arte Museum, Kristi Faulkner Dance, Society for the Study of Gloria Anzaldua, SpareWorks Dance, and the Indigenous Choreographers Gathering at UC-Riverside.

A first generation college student, Fabiola holds an A.A. in Dance, a B.A. in Mexican American Studies and Anthropology, and a M.F.A in Dance from the University of Michigan. Their leadership study includes participation in institutes by the Urban Bush Women, Dancing Earth Contemporary Creations, Dance/USA, F.I.E.R.C.E., N.A.L.A.C. and the Esperanza Peace and Justice Center. She has worked professionally as a performer, choreographer, project collaborator, and instructor on projects with the Dance Exchange, Safos Dance Theatre, Forklift Danceworks, Urban-15, and Dancing Earth Contemporary Creations. Her research explores feminist methodologies, intersectional politics, decolonial epistemologies, and migrant experiences. They enjoy facilitating dance making opportunities for movers of all backgrounds and cultivating interdisciplinary collaborations that explore the relationship between performance and action. 

For more information about Fabiola Torralba please visit https://fabiolatorralba.wordpress.com or write to her at fabiola.ochoa.torralba@gmail.com.

Clara Pinsky (she/her) is an artist-organizer and arts administrator based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She received her B.A. in Dance from Wesleyan University, where her senior thesis, “Evaluating Community-Based Performance as a Strategy for Community Development” emerged from her work on program evaluation for Forklift Danceworks. Clara also directed BUILD, a dance featuring Wesleyan’s Physical Plant employees, using the engagement model developed by Forklift Danceworks. She has been working for Forklift since 2015, collaborating on The Trees of Govalle (2015), The Artist in the City (2016), Bartholomew Swims (2017), Served (2018), Nadamos Dove Springs (2018), Givens Swims (2019), and From the Ground Up (2019).

When she’s not making dances with Forklift, Clara works as a Research Associate at the Lindy Institute for Urban Innovation while pursuing a Masters degree in Urban Strategy at Drexel University. Prior to working at Lindy, Clara served as Program Manager for Skywatchers, a community-engaged arts program in the Tenderloin Neighborhood of San Francisco.

Don Anderson was born and raised in Austin, Texas. Currently a driver with CapMetro, Don previously worked at Solid Waste Services (now Austin Resource Recovery) for 8 years. During that time he starred in Forklift’s production of the Trash Project and in the documentary film Trash Dance. Since then he has spoken both locally and nationally about this creative collaboration between city employees and a dance company. In his free time, Don loves to barbecue and spend time with his lovely wife Regina and their grandkids.

Cindy Elizabeth was born and raised in Austin, TX, where she currently resides and makes art. After graduating from Baylor University in 2010, Elizabeth began exploring her desire to create change by documenting the world around her. Working through the mediums of photography, film, and mixed media, she explores the concepts of culture, history, and balance. Elizabeth’s work has been shown at Women and Their Work Gallery, The George Washington Carver Museum, Mexicarte Museum and the University of Texas at Austin.

Allen first came across Forklift Danceworks when he was working at Austin Energy. He wrote and performed three original poetry pieces as a part of PowerUp. He was then asked to write, perform, and be a play-by-play announcer in Play Ball on Historic Downs Field. After being a part of Forklift for these two fantastic productions, Allen served on the Forklift Board of Directors for four wonderful years from 2015 to 2019. This year he is collaborating with Forklift on Take Me Out to Downs Field.

Allen retired from Austin Energy in 2019 after working there for over 27 years. A graduate of the University of Texas, he was born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama. Allen enjoys time with his wife Christine and their three dogs (Cami, Charlie, and Cooper). Allen enjoys watching sports, especially college football and baseball, and attending spoken word poetry events. He has performed spoken word poetry in Austin and across the nation, and has competed in many poetry slams. And after all these great years with Forklift Danceworks, Allen has danced, worked, but has never driven a forklift.

Robert Smith, a.k.a. Scot Free, is from Bastrop, Texas and graduated from Huston Tillotson University in 2019. Robert is a slam poet and a manager with HEB. He first collaborated with Forklift Danceworks as an announcer and slam poet for Play Ball on Historic Downs Field in 2014, and he is once again bringing his smooth rhymes to this year’s project Take Me Out to Downs Field.

Robert has competed on several teams at the National Poetry Slam, including the 2010 Neo Soul slam team that placed 4th in the nation and the 2014 team that placed 2nd in group piece finals. He loves slam poetry and although he is semi-retired, he enjoys performing when the moment presents itself.

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
Called “the quintessential modern composer” by the London Independent, Austin-based composer-bandleader-improviser Graham Reynolds creates, performs, and records music for film, theater, dance, rock clubs, and concert halls with collaborators across a multitude of disciplines.

Heard throughout the world in films, TV, stage, and radio, he recently scored Richard Linklater’s Where’d You Go, Bernadette with Cate Blanchett, Kristen Wiig, and Laurence Fishburne for Annapurna Pictures, Happy Jail for Netflix, the Rude Mechs’ Stop Hitting Yourself for Lincoln Center Theater, Ballet Austin’s Grimm Tales, and a multi-year commission from Ballroom Marfa, The Marfa Triptych. He has performed on an array of legendary stages, from the Kennedy Center to the Green Mill Tavern to the Conan O’Brien Show. His Creative Capital Award winning project, Pancho Villa from a Safe Distance, a bilingual cross-border opera created with librettists Lagartijas Tiradas al Sol (Mexico City) and director Shawn Sides (Rude Mechs), has been staged in over a dozen cities in North America.

As Artistic Director of the non-profit Golden Hornet, he leads efforts which draw on the collaborative spirit of rock bands and the composer-led nature of classical music, with a focus on commissioning new music, fostering young and emerging composers, and presenting adventurous works in non-traditional settings. Alongside Kronos Quartet’s longtime cellist Jeffrey Zeigler, he curated The Sound of Science, an interdisciplinary, multimedia performance that is touring internationally.

Reynolds leads the jazz-based but far reaching Golden Arm Trio. He is a company member with the internationally acclaimed Rude Mechs theater collective and resident composer with Salvage Vanguard Theater and Forklift Danceworks. His accolades include a Creative Capital Award, an Independent Music Award, two Frederick R. Loewe Music Theatre Awards, nine Austin Critics Table Awards, the John Bustin Award, multiple Austin Chronicle Best Composer wins, and a B. Iden Payne Award. Graham released a twelve album set on Innova Recordings in early 2017 and his newest studio effort, MARFA: A Country & Western Big Band Suite, came out on November 22, 2019. 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

Tamara Rivera is an environmentalist who has a passion for social justice and community building. Tamara is from Holyoke, Massachusetts and is a senior at Wesleyan University where she double majors in Biology and Environmental Studies with a minor in Dance. With Forklift, Tamara has collaborated on Givens Swims. She has also participated in and led an on campus project where she job shadowed Physical Plant employees with other students and created a performance with choreography from their everyday lives.

E’ja Alexander is a native Texan who loves the arts. Raised in Dallas, E’ja is an aspiring dancer with training and teaching experience from Dallas Black Dance Academy. She’s also choreographed for WEBO Tiger Steppers. She is a freshman at the University of Texas at Austin studying for a BFA in dance. E’ja enjoys hanging out with friends and reading in her free time.  She hopes to explore the many different sides of fine arts and one day pursue a career dancing in a professional company.