Kia The Key & Company
Kia The Key & Company is my project based dance company and one of the primary spaces where I develop and share my choreographic research. Based in Western Massachusetts, the company is grounded in Street and Club dances. Through this work, I explore how these forms carry cultural memory, communal wisdom, and embodied knowledge that is deeply connected to the African Diaspora. The company brings together a diverse group of dancers across race, nationality, and background. I love working with dancers that reflect a wide range of lived experiences, and that diversity deeply informs our process and the stories we tell.
This company is not just about making performances, it’s about asking questions, building relationships, and creating opportunities to engage with the complexity and beauty of Black social dance. Each project serves as a way for me to investigate how these movement practices function as cultural expression, political resistance, and modes of collective healing. The process is collaborative, community centered, and rooted in a commitment to honoring the history and legacy of the forms.
As a choreographer, I draw from oral histories, improvisational structures, and communal dance traditions such as the cypher. These tools allow for layered investigations into how Street and Club dances archive personal, historical, and collective experiences. I approach this work using embodied research methods that honor the voices and lived experiences of Black and Afro-diasporic communities.
Our current project, The Gathering, is an immersive outdoor performance that brings together live music, dance, and poetry. Supported by the New England Foundation for the Arts’ Public Art for Spatial Justice Grant, The Gathering is inspired by my ongoing research and teaching around the lineage of African diasporic social dances, and how these practices show up in everyday life as acts of survival, celebration, and connection. The performance is designed to meet people where they are, whether they show up intentionally or encounter it in a public space, inviting them into a shared experience through rhythm, movement, and story.
Past projects have been presented at venues and festivals across the Northeast, and the company has collaborated with DJs, poets, and musicians to create multidimensional work that lives both in and beyond traditional performance spaces. The company’s work also intersects with my teaching; students and community members are often invited into the process through open rehearsals, workshops, and public dialogues. This integration of research, pedagogy, and performance is central to my scholarly approach as a dance artist and educator. Through Kia The Key & Company, I engage in embodied research and collaborative dance making to explore and honor the stories, traditions, cultural contributions of black and Afro-diasporic communities.
Kia The Key Promo Reel
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