"I believe in social dislocation and creative trouble." — Bayard Rustin
Toran Xavier Moore is a Southern-born, Los Angeles-based artist who works alongside culture
and community, shaping what's around him into new forms. As a choreographer, producer, and
arts administrator, he works with what's already there: story, tradition, people, place, and turns it
into something others can move through and build from.
That work starts on stage. Moore's choreography for Dahlak Brathwaite's Try/Step/Trip earned a
2026 Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Choreography following its premiere at the
Under the Radar Festival, with coverage in The New York Times. He also choreographed Lolita
Chakrabarti's Hymn and the SoCal premiere of Kill Move Paradise, both at the Odyssey Theatre
Ensemble (the latter reviewed in the Los Angeles Times), and led step instruction for youth
through the Queen Liliʻuokalani Trust's ʻŌlino Arts Program in Oahu. His early performance and
choreographic foundation took shape during his undergraduate years with ASU’s Eclectic
Dance Company.
That range carries into his producing work just as naturally. Moore has delivered projects with
cultural institutions nationally and internationally, including Terra Kulture, Yerba Buena Center
for the Arts, MCA Chicago, Brown Arts Institute, Vielmetter Los Angeles, the National Museum
of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC), and The Kennedy Center. His credits
include touring Edgar Arceneaux's Until, Until, Until…, serving as Lead Producer for Day of the
Ancestors: Festival of Masks in Leimert Park, Associate Producer for WE | BE | GOING at
NMAAHC, and Production Manager for We the Peoples Before at The Kennedy Center for the
First Peoples Fund.
Moore leads that same work at the institutional level as Director of Programs at the International
Association of Blacks in Dance, a role he's built over eight years. He directs national program
portfolios and manages a network of over 50 member organizations serving Black dance artists
and institutions nationwide.
Before any stage or title, Moore learned to work with what was before him, first in the South,
then at Alabama State University, where the storytelling traditions of home taught him that
change isn't about control, it's about collaboration and community. He holds an M.F.A. from the
California Institute of the Arts and a B.A. from Alabama State University, and is a member of
Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.
The roots are Southern. The vision is global.