Today we’d like to introduce you to Lauren Cek.
Lauren, please kick things off for us by telling us about yourself and your journey so far.
I started my dance career at 22 months old, two months earlier than the traditional start in classical ballet of 2 due to my November birthday. Though this may seem normal for my dancer family, my case was unique because I was born with club feet and twisted legs. These deformities caused me to spend my first months of life in heavy full leg casts and to wear orthopedic shoes for my childhood. Naturally, all of this made me walk late, at 18 months, meaning I only had around 4 months of walking before my first dance classes. Being a child, I was blissfully ignorant of my setbacks and was able to overcome walking with a limp and inward turning feet thanks to ballet.
The love for dance only intensified as I grew older and soon I was enrolled in every class I was allowed to be in, forgoing sports, cheerleading, band, normal social life and all the hallmarks of high school to fuel my dance desires. Ballet, tap, jazz and acrobatics filled my evenings but I longed for something I felt more closely related to. My much older brother had also been a ballet dancer (as had most members of my mother’s family) but he had branched out to belly dance. I was fascinated from the first moment I saw it and was constantly trying to steal his music and ornate belts to try the dance for myself. This side passion was suppressed though as I went on to dance for Ballet Florida and Palm Beach Opera, but I knew one day I would return.
That day came after I had left the ballet part for feeling unfulfilled and part knowing I would always be held back due to my curves that had developed in puberty, despite my best efforts to squash them, and my skin tone, “avoid the sun or you’re unmarketable!”. Feeling always not good enough and dancing the same ballets every year in a second-rate ballet company was not my idea of a dance career and I left to pursue my academic studies full time. This lasted maybe a year before I found myself in dance classes again, but this time it was different. I was taking Turkish belly dance, bhangra, flamenco, where my natural self was celebrated instead of suppressed and I felt myself blossoming artistically.
Before I knew it, I was leading a double life, pursuing my graduate studies in Anthropology by day and dancing by night. I kept telling myself I would stop at one point or another in order to “grow up” but soon realized I did not want that. Instead I grew in my dance and academia side by side. Next thing I knew I had created Cheeky Belly Dancer, my solo dance company where I started booking locally as well as internationally. This was great, but I still felt the need to grow. Next came my performing troupe Sirens Dance Collective (previously Belly Dance Sirens) where I collaborated with Dawn Rhys to choreography, costume and create folkloric performances with up to 6 dancers. We expanded beyond belly dance to bollywood, Polynesian, Samba, fire, can can, flapper, mermaids and yes, even sometimes ballet. Anything that gets my heart racing I experiment with and see if we can create a show that the public will love. Here is where I am know hoping to grow and expand Sirens to larger and more elaborate stages.
Can you give our readers some background on your art?
I create a moment of joy. In our age where there is need to document everything, where the fear of missing out or to flex on social media outweighs the actual experience we as a society are in desperate need for something that removes us from the awareness of this constant social media gaze. My hope is with my and my dancer’s performances we make people suddenly find themselves in the moment. While dance and all performance art can be captured on video, the strength of it lies in being present for the moment. The immersive of the music, the subtlety of the music, the interaction between the performer and the audience all seem flat in video but are so engaging and mood altering in person. Though we cannot always win in our competition with the screen, we often do and that shared experience with strangers is intoxicating for the performer and audience member alike.
In your view, what is the biggest issue artists have to deal with?
The biggest challenge is the constant battle of novelty. We are in a (wonderful) age where so much information is at your fingertips. We can literally watch and learn about anything we want, we can fabricate an online world that perfectly tailors itself to our personal beliefs, expectations and desires. Of course, this a double edge sword both for keeping humans united and remembering our common humanity and for the artist. What we create with our bodies, minds and talents can be so quickly reduced to nothing or replicated or perfected thanks to computer modification. It becomes quickly disheartening when the thrill of novelty is increasingly the art of choice over what is created and curated in tradition and human talent.
What’s the best way for someone to check out your work and provide support?
I am lucky enough to have public performances weekly throughout south Florida that I or the dancers of Sirens Dance Collective perform at. Thursday- Saturdays at Taverna Trela in Delray beach, Fridays and Saturdays at Taverna Opa Delray, Fridays and Saturdays at Agora Mediterranean Kitchen in Old Northwood, Fridays at Wynwood Smoke and Lounger in Miami, the second Friday of every month at Your Greek Cousin and last Friday of every month at Hookah Tonight in Plantation. You can also check my calendar of events on my website cheekybellydancer.com for one-time events and of course hire us to perform at your next event. And of course, though I find it somewhat lacking, there are examples at Youtube.com/user/cheekybellydance and Instagram @cheekbelly
Contact Info:
- Website: cheekybellydancer.com
- Phone: 15612673787
- Email: cheeky.bellydance@gmail.com
- Instagram: cheekybelly
- Facebook: cheekybellydance
- Other: sirensdancecollective.com
Image Credit:
Hudson Art Photography (image 4), Katrina Elena Photography (image 5) George Quiroga (2) Robert Swinson (6) Myself Lauren Cek (1 and 7)
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