Choreographer, Lauren Burke, discusses her creative process. Photo Credit: Zondra Victor.
According to atlantaballet.com, becoming a professional dancer takes between 8-10 years. Typically, students begin dancing around age 7. However, this is not always true for dancers. Professional dancer, choreographer, and teacher, Lauren Burke began dancing in high school and continued dancing as an elective into her college years.
Lauren first attended Lamar University where she studied nursing in hopes of pursuing the medical field. She had finished all of her prerequisites but ended up moving back to Houston where she attempted to enroll in Texas Women’s University – Downtown. It was too late to enroll, so she took dance, art, and piano classes at Houston Community College in order to satisfy her scholarship credit requirements. It was there she realized her true calling to dance.
Since graduating as a dance major at the University of Houston, Lauren has kept busy in her many performances with Urban Souls, FrenetiCore, The Hunter Dance Center, and other projects.
“This piece is called Find the Water and we are basing it on a documentary presented by Valvisions Foundation. [They] are trying to bring awareness to female mutilation that is happening primarily in Africa, along that middle band in Africa.”
Lauren Burke teaches choreography to dancers featured in her newest piece. Photo credit: Zondra Victor
As a contemporary dancer, Lauren has evolved both as a teacher and a dancer within the Houston community.
“For me it depends on the given. Are the dancers a given? Is there music given? For this piece that I am working on, the music was a given…The inspiration for the movement comes a lot from who is watching it, where is its source, the music that was given to me, and dynamics. I’m trying to work with dynamics and changing things up. I really love form. As a personal mover, I really do love form, strength, lines. I love those picture moments. When you’re doing something and you hit it, a picture can be taken and it would be like an art on its own.”
Lauren has upcoming performances including one called The Snow Queen with FrenetiCore. This show will run from December 4th through the 12th. Lauren will perform her piece called The Match with Hunter Dance Studio from February 18th through the 21st.
“I learned that it’s best to have no expectations…I try to live so much in the moment. I think about my next step. And I dream about the next step after that. My next step here, is to finish out my season here with Open Dance Project…Houston is great and growing in the arts, but I want to push myself to the next limit. I feel like I’ve accomplished a lot here in Houston, but my next step is New York, and from there, we will see.”