About Lauren

 

 

A Miami-native, Lauren is an award-winning belly dancer performing on stage and in San Francisco Bay Area restaurants. She can also be seen performing as a member of professional belly dance troupe Khamsin, directed by Sandra.

 

Drawing on her varied dance experience to enrich her technique, Lauren’s love of dance began at a very early age, when she begged her parents to enroll her in ballet classes. She studied a wide range of techniques throughout her childhood, including ballet, tap, jazz and modern. As an adult, she added classes in hip-hop, salsa and Bharata Natyam to her repertoire.

 

Lauren first fell in love with Middle Eastern belly dance music while taking a class at a local Miami gym. The movements and meanings behind them kindled her imagination and a new love of modern American Cabaret style and classical Raks Sharki. She continued to study Middle Eastern dance while living abroad in China, but did not discover her mentor and teacher, Sandra, until she moved to the Bay Area in 2009.

 

When she’s not working on her dance education, Lauren makes good use of her BA in International Studies and MA in East Asian Studies.