Kayliani Sood and Allison Smith

Jumper Cables is a collaborative duo whose movement practice lives between the worlds of street and post modern dance. Co-founders Allison Smith and Kayliani Soods’ respective backgrounds in contemporary styles weave through foundations in popping, breaking, and house to create a rigorous, athletic, and unornamented approach to dance making. Smith and Soods’ methods value creative ingenuity, collective agency, and interdisciplinary collaboration with musicians. They have performed and set work in the Philadelphia Fringe Festival, Urban Movement Arts’ Flow State, and Philadelphia Dance Projects’ DANCE UP CLOSE series. Their work has been featured in ThINKing Dance journal and Broad Street Review.

Individual bios:

Allison Smith (she/her) is a dance artist based in Philadelphia. She works to focus her contemporary dance aesthetic on breath, weight, power, release, rhythm, and risk; Smith honed these interests working closely with Momar Ndiaye, Eddie Taketa, and Abby Zbikowski while receiving a BFA in dance at The Ohio State University. Smith practices street dance styles such as house, popping, and breaking, and investigates the relationship between those forms and contemporary dance. In her creative work, she desires to acknowledge and highlight why hip-hop’s presence is vital in concert dance.

Kayliani Sood is a white femme dance artist, choreographer, and educator based in Philadelphia. Their multidisciplinary work spans movement, songwriting and visual arts to articulate rich, personal narratives of neurodivergence and femmehood. Sood is a passionate teacher— whose practice ranges from the realm of early childhood to adult dance education. They hold a BFA in Dance from the University of the Arts, and have performed with Chloe Marie, Curt Haworth, and Vincent Johnson among others. Sood’s choreographic works have featured in the 20/92 film festival, Cannonball Festival, Philadelphia Fringe Festival, and Philadelphia Dance Projects’ DANCE UP CLOSE series.