Allison Orr

Allison Orr (she/her), Founder and Artistic Director of Forklift Danceworks, has honed a methodology of ethnographic choreography that engages community members as co-authors and performers in the creation of large-scale civic spectacles. Her dances, which have featured collaborators such as sanitation workers, construction crews, power line workers, and groundskeepers, showcase the virtuosity in everyday movement and share the stories of those whose work sustains our daily lives. Expanding notions of dance and performer, Allison’s work has been commissioned across the USA, Europe, and Japan. A Distinguished Fellow of the College of Environment at Wesleyan University, Allison has been named a MacDowell Fellow, a Dance/USA Fellow in Social Change, and a Doris Duke US Artist Fellow, recognizing her as a leading artist working in the USA today. Learn more about Allison and her book, Dance Works, at www.forkliftdanceworks.org.

BIO CREATED NOV 2025