Lauren Linder (she/her) is a choreographer, performer, and educator currently pursuing her MFA in Dance on the choreography track at the University of Iowa. Lauren’s choreographic research uncovers connections between dance and language. Through attention to softness, syntax, play, and gesture, Lauren’s work problematizes hierarchies of movement and traces relational ambiguities. Lauren’s research interests include dance as a literacy practice, the discursive connections between dancing, writing, and femininity, score building, and accessibility in dance spaces. 

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 Three Yells, the Pat Graney Company, Alice Gosti, Petra Zanki, the Baker-Tarpaga Dance Project, and Adriana Hernández among others. Outside of Space Place Theater, Lauren’s choreography has been presented at the Color Club (Chicago, IL), the Green House (Iowa City), Voxman Music Building (Iowa City), Erickson Theater (Seattle), the Jewelbox Theater (Seattle), the Iron Factory (Philadelphia, PA), RAD Dance Fest (Kalamazoo, MI), the Seattle International Dance Festival Spotlight Series, the Converge Dance Festival (Seattle), the Inlay Dance Festival (Seattle), Ktisk Contemporary Dance through Access Velocity (Seattle), and On the Boards Open Studio Series (Seattle). 

Lauren holds an MA in Multilingual Education, a BFA in Dance and a BA in Spanish from the University of Iowa. Lauren is a teaching artist with the UI Youth Ballet and director of Combined Efforts Dance, a dance company that facilitates purposeful collaboration between artists with and without intellectual disabilities. Laurenlinderdance.com