As a dancer, photographer, and musician, I have a heart for community, healing, and transformation. Since I was young, I have experienced dance as a way for me to escape, receive, and express my story to bring healing. This has always been a part of my heart and my story, the passion only growing with time.

Since my time as a professional dancer in my early 20s, I have researched how dance and healing synergize, and have seen firsthand how dance and movement impact the heart, the body, and the spirit. I myself have experienced complex trauma, and my dance and faith met me in such a way to release and bring about healing through its ability to share my story and bring about safety and grounding through its powerful and tender expression. I have researched with color, light, sound, and frequency in partnership with movement to see how it may bring about more transformative levels of freedom and healing -- through movement workshops and choreographic experiences. The working title for the last 10 years for this research, choreography, and workshop development has been The Freedom Project.

In 2017, I had a divine encounter with God while I was in Mozambique, and heard to start a dance company. I knew even then, it wouldn’t be a conventional dance company, but a fully immersive, collaborative project with different artists and regions. This is when all things came together, and The Freedom Project as a company was born. 

I have taught, explored, choreographed and danced with different communities since then, and the vision has only grown stronger and clearer. 

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This has led me to launch The Freedom Project, a unique form of a dance company and collective that is grounded in site-specific work, healing and prayer, with the foundation of a collaborative creative process based in storytelling and community.

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Over the past few months, I have been in the dance studio preparing to release a new workshop, Movement as Prayer, and choreograph a new collaborative performance piece with two fellow dancers and musicians, Elephant Wells, to release live at The Breath and the Clay conference, March 22-24, 2024.

I have already launched two live workshops in Lynchburg, VA in February this year, and am developing new material for upcoming collaborations in April and beyond. I truly believe this work will bless many people — and also have opportunity to release a multiple class series in Lynchburg, VA spring 2024. I need your help to see this work come alive. It has been a labor of my heart.

The goal is to raise $3,500 by the end of March, and additionally, a total of $8,000 to see the first phase of The Freedom Project released.

Friends, to be clear, raising funds does not serve solely for the launching of these initial performances and workshops. I truly believe this is a calling, and I have a wellspring to offer that I want to gift to the world. It would be an honor to have you partner with me to see this heart-work come to fruition. After many years of experience, training, and writing, I am beginning to walk this out in new ways, each step by faith, and have seen God continually make connections and open doors both locally and regionally.

Would you prayerfully partner with me in this?

A little more about me:

As a dancer, photographer, and musician, I have a heart for community, healing, and transformation. I have been a photographer for 15 years , expanded into community and nonprofit work by founding an artistic community in Charlottesville, VA and serving as the community director (The Farm House 2015-2022 ), and have danced and trained with companies and collectives from coast to coast.

I began dancing at a young age, and later trained and danced with Inlet Dance Theatre  in Cleveland, OH (Erik Hawkins Modern Release Technique; Improvisation [Liz Lerman] and Non-Traditional Partnering), former collaborator and dancer with Elu Dance Company, and have worked alongside dance therapists, inner healing prayer ministers, and trauma survivors to release healing through dance. I have led and traveled with dancers and projects around the world, choreographing works to benefit nonprofit organizations and bring awareness to human rights issues. Having experienced deep levels of healing and freedom through dance, I hope to share that with others through my upcoming created pieces of choreography, collaborative works with other dancers, and movement workshops.

and finally,

Even if you cannot give financially, I would ask that you join me in prayer over each and every aspect of this release and creation. Again, I am leaning into my faith deeply, believing that these resources and spaces of movement created will bring healing, beauty, community, and belonging to each person involved. I pray that as the workshops are released, people will learn, express, and leave with/ return home to themselves with tools to add to their lives to experience God's presence more deeply.

THANK YOU for your time reading this, and for your continued support of the dreams alive in my heart through the years -- you all have truly been my hands and feet in every way. Thank you for believing with me for these resources and sewing into this vision.

Prayerfully,
Lauren

*PLEASE don't hesitate to reach out with any questions! You can email me here at laurenstonestreetco@gmail.com, as well as sign up for my monthly newsletter on my  website, where all updates, offerings (online and in-person), etc will be announced and released. I will share in more detail about workshop descriptions and creation, and updates on fundraising and process!

Teaching in Charlottesville, VA at The Farm House 2017; Performances Piece A Night of Hope and Reconciliation, Charlottesville, VA 2016; Inlet Dance Theatre, 2012.