Key'Aira Lockett

Assistant Faculty, Dance

A Native of Dallas, Texas. Key’Aira Lockett began her classical and traditional dance training at
the age of three at Dallas Black Dance Academy. Ms. Lockett continued her training at the
academy throughout her adolescence, and eventually at age sixteen joined Dallas Black Dance
Theatre II, while simultaneously attending Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing
and Visual Arts. Since then she has received her undergraduate degree from the Boston
Conservatory where she earned her BFA in Dance with an emphasis in Creative Performance.
Soon after her undergrad, Key’Aira received her MFA in Performance and Choreography from
Hollins University, where she studied abroad in Frankfurt Germany. Ms. Lockett has not only
danced professionally in various dance companies and productions but has choreographed for
Urbanity Dance Company, Boston Conservatory, Hollins University, & Berklee College of Music.
Key’Aira now resides in Houston, Texas where she looks forward to joining the Dance
Department of the University of Houston as a Scholar in Residence.

Dance is my language and I intend to continue this legacy by reclaiming my identity, through
movement, as a young black female artist. It is my purpose to create work that enacts change in
American society by sparkingaudience’s curiosity, and encouraging them to transform their
frustration and discomfort into inquiry. While creating new dances, I search for unchoreographed moments of spontaneity within the work. I bring moments of realness through ‘acts of vulnerability’ in performative spaces. 

In these moments, I am most human; I am most relatable; I am visible. I give each
viewer an opportunity to relate and see themselves inside the work by tying social issues of
identity politics such as; race, sexuality, gender, and disability. I collaborate with musicians,
visual/digital artists, actors, and contemporary dancers to create work that advocates for the
oppressed collective, giving us a voice through dance. As a dancer, activist, and choreographer it
is not only important for me to introduce these ideas, but inspire others to leave the theater and
theorize identity politics, making more attempts and work that enacts change