ABOUT THE SHOW
Ever wonder about those strange noises coming from the apartment upstairs? Waltz through the hallways of The Eldert Lofts as a unique cast of characters explores the intimacies and intricacies of community. Take a peek behind closed doors to catch that familiar fight in the kitchen, or hide among the curtains as the woman downstairs dances alone. The original movement-based work is a series of vignettes that follows the stories of five tenants as they investigate their own relationships, exploring themes of connection, isolation, and identity.
Created by
In collaboration with Original sound & music performance by Stage Manager
Costumes by Set by Lighting by Graphic Design by Photography by Videography by
Avery-Jai Andrews and Lauren Kravitz
Cami Holman, Jennifer Mabus, and Omar Humphrey
Brittany Padilla
Brianna Ballow
Kelsey Oliver
Tori Reynolds
Ryan Burkle
Brittany Pickle
Corey Haynes
Taylor Cleveland
SPECIAL THANKS TO
Andy Baldwin/Lyric Stage, Alexandra Hulsey/Dallas Contemporary, Arts
Mission Oak Cliff, and Gayle Halperin/Bruce Wood Dance for granting us time and space to develop this work. Amber LaFrance at CultureHype for helping us share it with new audiences. Jakob Fenton for helping to build us a strong, safe playground. And to our family and friends who continue to support us along the way. You know who you are. ♥
ARTIST BIOS
Avery-Jai Andrews (Producer, Creative Director, Performer) is a classically-trained dance artist, now a non-profit arts leader based in Dallas, Texas. She graduated from NYU Tisch School of the Arts and freelanced internationally. She returned to her hometown with a mission to create an “artists’ kibbutz,” a community that empowers, supports, and funds individuals to build their livelihood as arts workers. Avery-Jai is the Co-Founder and Visionary of the grassroots organization Agora Artists, and in addition, she is the Interim Executive Director of the community arts space Arts Mission Oak Cliff (AMOC). As a proud graduate of Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, Avery-Jai is a consultant for the Advisory Board and pioneers the initiative to build the official alumni association.
Lauren Kravitz (Producer, Creative Director, Performer) is a freelance dance artist and community facilitator based in Dallas, TX. Lauren has worked professionally in New York as a member of Seán Curran Company, Take Dance, and Indah Walsh Dance Company, among others. She performed around the country at venues including the ODC Theater (CA), Brooklyn Academy of Music (NY), and the Watermill Center (NY), among others, and has taught at New York University, Sam Houston State University, The Wooden Floor, and more. Lauren is dedicated to contributing to and supporting the local dance community in Texas. She currently works in leadership at Arts Mission Oak Cliff, guest teaches throughout North Texas, and continues to collaborate with Texas and New York-based artists. As the co-founder of Agora Artists, Lauren is committed to creating opportunities for connection and growth for dancers in Dallas. She received her early training from Booker T. Washington HSPVA and graduated from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts with a BFA in Dance.
Brittany Padilla (Composer, Performer) is a music performer, composer, and producer in DFW. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Music and a minor in Spanish from the University of North Texas. Her career as a dance musician began in African dance classes and performances in undergrad. She expanded her repertoire at Texas Woman’s University playing for modern, ballet, improv, and jazz. She is now a dance accompanist at TWU and Tarrant County College Northwest in Fort Worth. She performs and composes in collaboration with local dance companies and individual artists around the United States. As a multi-instrumentalist, she plays and records an array of acoustic and digital instruments with emphasis on percussion and voice. Brittany works with Ableton Live, a software for producing music, and is a certified Ableton Specialist. https://queenbritmusic.com/
Kelsey Oliver (Costumer), an Austin native, is a freelance artist routinely in scrappy, maximalist, humor-struck collaborations. Trained as a dancer, and devotedly enthused by physical theatre, KO has spent recent years dabbling in costume design and curation, styling for Performa/Dance, UT’s Fall For Dance, Frank Wo/Men Collective, Erica Saucedo, Heloise Gold, The Reverie, and many solo & duet works. She likes durational stuff, absurdist stuff, devised stuff, funny stuff, and stuff that gets soakingly athletic. She also loves her queer family with 5 fur floof children. ♥ For some more peeks: Kelsey-Oliver.com | @kelsey_oliver
Tori Reynolds (Set) is a fabricator, a set designer and a friend. Harboring multiple part-time obsessions, Tori does a lot of things with a hammer in hand. They work in an array of creative fields, enjoying film and building worlds for weird theatre folks most fondly. Toreyn.com
Ryan Burkle (Lighting Design) is a Dallas-based Lighting Designer and Technician. He is currently a Production Electrician at the Dallas Theater Center. He has designed and worked in theaters and schools around Dallas and the US, some of which include Echo Theatre, IMPRINT Theaterworks, Trinity Repertory Company, WaterTower Theatre, Theatre Three, Kitchen Dog Theatre, The Elevator Project, Opera Saratoga, Zach Theatre, Richland College, TWU, and Baylor University. He strives to be a Lighting Educator as well as a successful designer, and is so pleased to be able to join Agora Artists for The Eldert Lofts in their mission to offer groundbreaking work to Dallas audiences.
Brianna Ballow (Stage Manager) is so excited to be joining the Agora Artists team for this production. In 2020, she received her undergraduate degree in Stage Management at Marymount Manhattan College, and since, has gone to work with many theaters in the DFW area. Most recently, she had the pleasure of joining Wishing Star Productions for a national tour of Grace for President and then returning to Dallas Theater Center for Into the Woods . Next up, she will truly be heading “into the woods” as an Assistant Stage Manager for Timber Lake Playhouse’s summer season. Brianna would like to thank her family for their continued love and support.
Cami Holman (Collaborator, Performer) has been working in formal education and community space since 2015, challenging the existing conditions of “who holds knowledge”. Cami Holman questions societal structures and uses dance to heal herself, others and support social transformation. Before settling into this path, Cami graduated from Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts. She then went on to receive a Bachelor’s in Dance Education from Texas Woman’s
University (TWU). Cami works with grassroots dance companies and nonprofit organizations that cater to marginalized groups and arts education and returned to TWU to receive her MFA in Dance. Her work inherently cultivates an awareness and inquiry for participants to challenge their own knowledge, begin to heal, and be part of social transformation.
Omar Humphrey (Collaborator, Performer) started his dance training at 14 at The Black Academy of Arts and Letters in Dallas, TX. After graduating from Booker T. Washington HSPVA, he received his BFA from the University of Oklahoma with a degree in Modern Dance. Omar danced with Verb Ballets in Cleveland, OH where he toured both nationally and internationally. He then moved to NYC and found freelance work with friends from around the country. Omar is currently on faculty at his alma mater, Booker T. Washington HSPVA.
Thank you to Jennifer Mabus for being a generous and creative tenant of The Eldert Lofts during this process.
