Lauren Carmen is a costume designer, maker, craftsperson, ballet dancer, artist in NYC. She comes to the performing arts first and foremost through a life of dancing, having worked as a professional ballet dancer, dance & pilates instructor, before diving more fully into the world of costume. Originally from Iowa City, IA, Lauren trained at Nolte Academy & across the country at prestigious ballet academies like Houston Ballet, before joining the Joffrey Ballet Academy in Chicago, and ultimately attending the University of Oklahoma, where she received her BFA in Ballet Pedagogy, Minor in French, Emphasis in Costume Design. Upon graduation, she danced professionally, choreographed on the company, and taught ballet at companies and schools in the Midwest, all the while designing &/or constructing costumes for companies like Central Illinois Ballet, Houston Ballet, before being invited to pursue her MFA in Costume Design from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, Department of Design for Stage and Film, which she completed this past May.

Since moving to NYC, Lauren has been working as a freelance costume designer and dancer. Projects of particular excitement include teaching costume courses to Undergraduate students at NYU, working with dancers of American Ballet Theatre and New York City Ballet, Sarasota Ballet in various capacities as Costume Designer, Assistant Costume Designer, Draper, etc, at places like Vail International Dance Festival, with Jillian Lewis on Lincoln Center & Joyce Theatre premieres of Jessica Lang pieces, or unique venue like iHeartDance NYC while the theaters were closed due to COVID, etc,; designing for choreographers/companies such as Gabrielle Lamb, PeiJu Chien-Pott, Skyla Schreter, New Chamber Ballet, Wo.Man in Motion, Dance Kaleidoscope, AY Dancers, NYU Tisch Dance Department, and more.

Though Lauren gravitates most toward dance-centric projects, she has also worked as Assistant Costume Designer in Off-Broadway and LORT productions, as well as currently working as resident Draper at Pace University’s Costume Shop. At present, Lauren is a company dancer with Dances Patrelle, as they mount their annual Nutcracker, and finds that the deep understanding of, and getting to work in both art forms enriches what she can bring to each of them– with special nod to using her experience and understanding of dance aesthetics and costume construction techniques to create comfortable, beautiful, costumes that move with and enhance the dancers’ performances, rather than work against their efforts. Lauren thrives to infuse all her work with not only a collaborative spirit and an understanding of art forms’ traditions while looking to expand those definitions, but also a sense of beauty, whimsy, and joie de vivre whenever possible.