about

the company

kearns dance project is a professional project oriented dance company directed by Lauren Kearns. The company is dedicated to making dynamic and athletic concert dance, screendance, and multimedia theatrical events. Kearns collaborates with designers, video artists, musicians, composers, and dancers to create work that is kinesthetically exciting, visually stimulating, and highly musical. The company is based in Burlington, NC and premiered in the 2007 American Dance Festival, Acts to Follow Series. Since its’ inception, the company has performed in the 2007-2008 NC Dance Festival, the 2008 NC Dance Alliance Conference, was a touring member of the 2008-2009 NC Dance Festival Tour and recently finished touring with the 2010-2011 NCDF Tour as part of their 20th anniversary celebration. 

lauren kearns

I am a contemporary choreographer emphasizing physical invention, expressive clarity, dynamic athleticism, and unexpected moments of intimacy. I weave mindful and full-bodied dancing, iconography, music, video, and visual design to create a rich, layered, and multi-sensory experience for the audience.

Lauren Kearns is the artistic director and the choreographer of the company. She has choreographed over forty-five professionally produced concert pieces nationally and internationally. Kearns received the 2008 NC Dance Alliance Choreography Fellowship and has received over twenty-seven grants and fellowships to support her creative and scholarly research.Kearns is a seasoned dance artist and somatic specialist having trained with notable modern and post-modern artists including David Rousseve, Victoria Marks, Pat Catterson, Nancy Topf, and Erick Hawkins among many others. She is also a dedicated yogini and is certified in Alignment-Based Yoga, Vinyasa Flow Yoga, and Classical Pilates. Her immersion in somatic modalities  greatly influences her movement vocabulary. She recently received an Elon Fund for Excellence Grant to create a new hybrid dance-media piece and screendance which premiered May 5, 2011. Prior to moving to North Carolina, Kearns was the artistic director of bodytalk dance, a Los Angeles repertory dance company that toured the southwest, had consecutive seasons at Highways Performance Space (a national performance network venue) and had a touring engagement in Changshu, China. She holds her M.F.A. in Choreography and Performance, and an M.A. in Dance Education and Theory from UCLA. In addition to her choreography career she is a tenured Associate Professor of Dance and Head of the Dance Program at Elon University. She recently published a dance education article on her somatic research and is a frequent guest artist and lecturer at national and regional dance conferences.Kearns is on the national board of directors for the American College Dance Festival Association and is the Regional Director-Elect for the Mid-Atlantic Region. She has also served on the board of directors for the North Carolina Dance Festival, sat on grant panels for the United Arts Council of Raleigh, coordinated the 2011 ACDFA Mid-Atlantic Region Conference, the 2010 NCDA Annual Conference and most recently was one of three adjudicators for the 2011 American Dance Festival International ScreenDance Festival.