Allison Orr

Allison Orr is a choreographer celebrated for turning everyday labor into compelling dance. Based in Austin, Texas, she draws on her background in anthropology and social work to craft what she calls “ethnographic choreography”. Working with communities including campus facilities staff, city wastewater personnel, professional baseball players, Venetian gondoliers and others, Orr transforms the movement of work into large-scale civic performances. Over the last two decades, Orr’s visionary work has been commissioned by festivals and institutions including Fusebox, Kyoto Art Center and the National Endowment for the Arts.

In 2001, she founded Forklift Danceworks, where she serves as artistic director. Her landmark work, "The Trash Project," a dance created with City of Austin sanitation workers and their trucks, earned acclaim for highlighting the artistry of labor and the importance of essential work. Orr was named a United States Artists Fellow in Dance in 2018, a recognition of her bold, community-centered approach to performance.

In 2023, she released her book titled "Dance Works: Stories of Creative Collaboration". Part memoir and part guide, Orr reflects on her decades-long work creating performances with municipal employees such as firefighters, power line workers and maintenance teams, and how community-based art projects can serve as essential tools to address civic issues. Orr’s work continues to challenge conventional notions of dance and performance, while offering collaborating community members and audiences an opportunity to acknowledge the humanity, skill and artistry in the work that sustains us all.