About Lauren
Lauren Godla is an environmental artist, dancer, director and movement educator.
artist statement
As a performing artist and choreographer, I observe the ways movement reveals inner worlds, and research how the creative process and performance connect us more deeply to our bodies, our environment and those we share it with. It is my lived experience and observation that most pain and sickness in our bodies and in the world, come from the idea of separateness and shame. My goal as an artist is to reflect daily on the beauty, joy, pain and absurdity of life and create work that inspires connections, diminishes shame and contributes to the healing of our bodies and the planet. Utilizing the powerful tools of vulnerability, absurdity, and embodiment to create a window into other worlds.
My personal creative practice is rooted in physical improvisation. Through this process, I allow my body the opportunity to unravel and reveal the many personal and collective stories that live within it. With regular practice, I keep my body ready and available to receive, integrate and speak. My collaborative creative practice invites in the stories of other bodies, both human and environmental and explores how those stories overlap, collide, and support each other. Through embodied listening this work brings forward the powerful, and yet often more subtle voices of our bodies, culture and environment.
I utilize humor and absurdity as tools to feel comfortable being honest. Through the spirit of play, I continue developing a process that produces work that is honest, inclusive, and honors the Wild Feminine. Creating platforms for some of the many untold Herstories to unfold.
lauren’s bio
Lauren Godla is a dance artist, director and movement educator based out of Gasquet, CA. She graduated with a BA in Exercise Biology and a Minor in Dance from UC Davis in 2012 and spent the better part of the following decade living and working in the Bay Area. She co-directed and performed for FloorPlay Dance Comedy, taught dance and yoga, choreographed, and toured and performed nationally with BANDALOOP during her time in the Bay. In 2020 she moved home to Del Norte County and in 2021 she founded DiRT & Glitter, an environmental art organization that creates site-specific productions. She has directed multiple site-specific performances along the Wild and Scenic Smith River, turning canyon walls into stages and audience members into paddlers. Her dance film “Drop” was included in the 2021 San Francisco Exhibition Showcase Three Turns, being projected onto the historic SFAI tower and inducted into the institution's 150-year-old archive. The next year her dance film “Two Suns” was selected to be a part of the San Francisco Dance Film Festival at the Brava Theatre in the Mission District. Recently she has been sharing her love for dance and yoga to youth from the Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation and the Yurok Tribe. This spring she is working on a dance film to celebrate the Klamath River renewal process through funding from the California Creative Corps as well as a dance film to celebrate Redwood National and State Parks as a part of her Artist in Residence Program with Redwood Conservancy. Her work aims to inspire connections, honor the body as part of our living planet, and explore our inner and outer wilderness.
Follow her on instagram @laurengodla to learn more about her upcoming work.