Forklift Danceworks

09/10/2026

We’re still looking for some friendly faces to help with The National Convening on Community-Based Practice Sep 23-25. This event will bring nearly 200 attendees, joining from across the country to UT Austin’s Campus, with a welcome event Wednesday evening at The Vortex Theatre Butterfly Bar.

Link to sign up: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0544AAA723A5FBC43-65521867-volunteer #/

Contact [email protected] for additional information.

08/06/2026

It’s time for some more presenter spotlights!

This fall, Mark Valdez and Marty Pottenger will join us for the National Convening on Community-Based Practice. You may even catch these two visionaries on a panel together. Join us in September to explore what community-based practice can teach us about building trust, navigating difference, and creating lasting civic impact through the arts.

👉 Click thru to learn more about our presenters.

🔗 Limited space available! Registration is open: https://www.forkliftdanceworks.org/projects/national-convening-on-community-based-practice/

07/15/2026

Join us for the National Convening on Community-Based Practice this September!

Liz Lerman will bring her decades of experience creating participatory artistic practice and fostering thoughtful dialogue—inviting us to consider how artists can cultivate curiosity, collaboration, and meaningful engagement in our communities.

Read her impressive bio below!

Liz Lerman is a choreographer, writer, educator, and the recipient of numerous honors, including a 2023 Guggenheim Fellowship, the 2017 Jacob’s Pillow Award, and the 2002 MacArthur “Genius Grant” Award. Liz founded and led the Dance Exchange from 1976 until 2011, where she cultivated the company’s unique multi-generational ensemble. Current projects include building the Atlas of Creative Tools®, an online resource and archive, and Legacy Unboxed™ that involves a series of site-specific research performance events called My Body is a Library™. Lerman’s newest book, Shape and Momentum: An Insomniac’s Guide for a World in Constant Motion, is a collection of personal essays published by Wesleyan University Press and available June 2026. Liz continues to evolve the Critical Response Process® through the annual certification program and an upcoming fundamentals course. Liz is the author of Teaching Dance to Senior Adults (1984), Hiking the Horizontal (2014), and co-author of Liz Lerman’s Critical Response Process (2003) and Critique Is Creative (2022) with John Borstel. She is currently an Institute Professor at Arizona State University’s Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts and a Fellow at the Center for the Study of Race and Democracy.

07/07/2026

As part of our 25 Stories for 25 Years series, hear from Scott Morrow, Operations Manager at Austin Water — our leading partner in The Way of Water—Colorado River (2025). Scott reflects on collaboration, creativity, and how performance revealed the beauty and pride behind the people who keep our water flowing. A new experience for Scott, who’s been with Austin Water for 31+ years!

07/07/2026

What happens when your utility workers take center stage?

As part of our 25 Stories for 25 Years series, hear from Scott Morrow, Operations Manager at Austin Water — our leading partner in The Way of Water—Colorado River (2025). Scott reflects on collaboration, creativity, and how performance revealed the beauty and pride behind the people who keep our water flowing. A new experience for Scott, who’s been with Austin Water for 31+ years!

Swipe through to read his story.

06/17/2026

Through The Way of Water, Forklift Danceworks connected thousands of community members to the people, places, and systems that shape our relationship with water. The impact demonstrates how community-based practice can spark connection, learning, and civic engagement.

💧Explore the creative process, partnerships, and community outcomes behind these two projects centering the Colorado River and Onion Creek. Full Impact Report available here ---> https://shorturl.at/tfKlb

❤️A heartfelt thank you to the artists, collaborators, community partners, supporters, funders and participants who helped bring this work to life. Your knowledge, creativity, and commitment made this journey possible.

Music by Graham Reynolds Music
Videography Austin Film Society
VO Allison Orr

06/03/2026

Registration is now open for the National Convening on Community Based Practice | September 23–25, 2026.

Artists, organizers, educators, students, and cultural workers from across the country will gather for conversations, activations, workshops, and knowledge-sharing centered on collaborative and community-based practice.

Learn more + register: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/national-convening-on-community-based-practice-registration-1990116864113



Photos by Jonica Moore Photography

05/11/2026

Attention all artists, civic leaders, scholars and cultural workers!

This Fall, Forklift will host a National Convening in Community Based-Practice, here in Austin Texas, September 23-25. Joined by presenters such as Liz Lerman, Allison Orr, Marty Pottenger, Mark Valdez, Stephanie V. McKee-Anderson and Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, we’ll host workshops and events that explore the growing national demand for models that bridge arts, civic systems, and community engagement.

The event is free but registration is required. Registration will be open on June 1, 2026 at https://www.forkliftdanceworks.org/projects/national-convening-on-community-based-practice/

Forklift is joined by partners including Wesleyan University’s College of the Environment, the Department of Theatre and Dance at The University of Texas at Austin, the Austin Community College Dance & Drama Departments, and Planet Texas 2050.

05/03/2026

"What sets Allison apart is her focus on community, how she uses something people share — a type of work, a neighborhood, a heritage — as the basis for not just a performance but also a celebration of the people who share that thing," said Robert Faires, former arts editor for the Austin Chronicle. "She shows us how everyday movement is dance and how we're all connected through dancing."

Wonderful piece on Allison Orr, recipient of the 2026 Doris Duke Charitable Foundation Artist Award in Austin American-Statesman by Michael Barnes.

The Austin dance maker behind Forklift Danceworks is among the 2026 Doris Duke Artist Award recipients.

05/01/2026

Congratulations Allison Orr