KEY'AIRA LOCKETT

Key’Aira Lockett is a Dallas-born choreographer, performer, filmmaker, and educator whose work lives at the intersection of embodied storytelling, immersive experience, and radical imagination. Her movement language draws from a rich foundation in ballet and modern techniques, such as Cunningham, Horton, and Countertechnique, layered with Pilates-inspired somatics and a commitment to presence, breath, full-body engagement, and deep spatial awareness.

She holds an MFA in Dance from Hollins University, where her research explored identity politics and queer theory, as well as a BFA in Creative Performance from the Boston Conservatory. As a performer, Key'Aira has danced with Dallas Black Dance Theatre II, Urbanity Dance, and VLA Dance, and has appeared in works presented by the Institute of Contemporary Arts and the Museum od Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts, and Queen Elizabeth's Resort in Uganda, Africa.

Her choreographic voice spans the stage, screen, and beyond recognized with an Emerging Filmmaker Award for her short film Roxbury Love Story, directed and produced Home Alone, a Choreographic Film Project commissioned by the Institute of Contemporary Art, and expanded through immersive site-specific works such as Breathing Court, commissioned by Project Backboard and created in collaboration with Nari Ward. She has choreographed nationally and internationally, with her most recent international work, Virtue, set on the dancers of MindLeaps Rwanda and presented at the 2024 Ubumuntu International Arts Festival. Her recent work with Houston Contemporary Dance Company, Inputs & Outputs / [DATA CHOREOGRAPHY] blurs the line between performance, installation, and digital inquiry, exploring themes of surveillance, memory, and Black embodiment.

Currently Assistant Professor of Dance at the University of Houston, Key'Aira teaches advanced technique and theory, composition, and directs the Dance Ensemble. She is a former Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts fellow and a member of the Midnight Oil Collective's venture research cohort, where she continues to investigate the intersections of dance, data, and cultural space.

At the heart of her practice is a devotion to creating movement that sees and honors the individual work, expanding awareness, inviting dialogue, and offering new ways of being in the body and the world.

Education

BFA in Dance with an emphasis in Creative Performance
The Boston Conservatory
2016

MFA in Dance with an emphasis in Choreography and Performance
Hollins University
2018