Lauren Linder (she/her) is a choreographer, performer, and educator currently pursuing her MFA in Dance at the University of Iowa (Iowa City, IA).

Lauren’s choreographic research investigates the relationship between stability and ephemerality as it relates to the dancing body, the written word, and the archive. Through attention to softness, syntax, girlhood, gesture and athleticism Lauren’s work problematizes hierarchies of form and traces relational ambiguities. Lauren’s research interests also encompass compositional improvisation, devised dance theater, the discursive connections between dancing, writing, and femininity, score building, and inclusivity and accessibility in dance spaces.

In Iowa City, Lauren dances for and collaborates with Stephanie Miracle, Melinda Jean Myers, Sean Thomas Boyt, Brady Van Patten, and Sophia McLaughlin on site-based work, dance theater work, and dance films.

Prior to relocating to Iowa City, Lauren worked as a dancer, choreographer, and educator in Seattle, Washington. There, Lauren had the pleasure to perform with the Pat Graney Company, Veronica Lee-Baik, Alice Gosti, Petra Zanki, Hope Goldman, and Alyza DelPan-Monley among others.

Lauren’s choreography has been shown at the Color Club (Chicago, IL), the Iron Factory (Philadelphia, PA), the Erickson Theater (Seattle, WA), Velocity Dance Center (Seattle, WA), On the Boards Open Studio (Seattle, WA), The Epic Center (Kalamazoo, MI), the JewelBox Theater (Seattle, WA), the Green House (Iowa City, IA), Space Place Theater (Iowa City, IA), the Voxman Music Building (Iowa City, IA), the Visual Arts Building (Iowa City, IA), and Arts Building West (Iowa City, IA). Her work The Beginnings of an Emergent Truth About Whipped Cream received a Dance Crush Award from Seattle Dances.

Lauren holds an MA in Multilingual Education, a B.F.A. in Dance and a B.A. in Spanish from the University of Iowa. Currently, Lauren is a dance teaching artist with the UI Youth Ballet and the Director of Combined Efforts Dance, a dance company that facilitates purposeful collaboration between artists with and without intellectual disabilities.