Lauren Cox

Lauren Cox is a storyteller of many mediums, originally from the SF Bay Area. As Associate Director and Assistant Professor of Jazz Dance and Pedagogy at UMass Amherst, she is deeply interested in studying and creating spaces for communal sanctuary and recognizes these practices as a blueprint for radical reclamation and transcendence.

She has performed, researched and taught in over ten countries, seeing the world as a classroom. Using New York as a base, Lauren developed curriculum and traveled internationally for Joffrey Ballet School while also teaching at The Ailey School, Limón Company II, Broadway Dance Center and Peridance. Her immersive and site-specific work on “Spaces” with Kaimera Productions highlights themes of storytelling, dance and collaborative justice. With the company she has erected the show in Harlem, New York; Saint-Denis, France; Oakland, California; Albany Park, Chicago (2027); and has done adjacent work with Kaimera in Queens, New York with “Make Justice Normal”, on The Island of Jean Charles, Louisiana with the Biloxi -Chitimacha-Choctaw Tribe and on the Island of Mozambique with the Slave Ship Wrecks Project for the Smithsonian of African American History.

Notable works and performances include: TedX Asbury Park and the consequential film, “Edelweiss” (2026/27); featured dancer in the documentary “Mama Dancers” streaming on Amazon Prime; Principal Performer in Randy Weiner and Ryan Heffington’s immersive off-broadway experience “Seeing You”; Associate Choreographer/Dance Captain and Swing for John Leguizamo’s “Kiss My Aztec” at Berkeley Rep, several performances on Saturday Night Live; and with Alicia Keys, Gwen Stefani, Coldplay, Pharrell, Joey Yung plus many more commercials, music videos and live shows, including resident host of "Stories from The Basement" and Brinda Guha’s “Wise Fruit: Celebrating the Feminine Divine.”