Interim Director of Dance

Tap, Jazz, Hip-Hop

Lari Lawrence-Gist earned her B.A. in Dance from Western Michigan University.  While a student, she spent a year as a performing member of the company, then called Children’s Repertory Dance Theatre, which ended with a tour in the Czech Republic as part of the International Festival of Dance. She also performed as a guest at Jazz Dance World Congress in Monterrey, Mexico in Lindsey Thomas’s work “Revolving Soles”. Upon graduation, Lari moved to New York City where she continued to train and work as a dancer and choreographer.  A few years later, a commissioned work brought her back to Michigan and while in residency, she took a job serving as interim director of the Berrien County Dancers.  At the same time, she began working for Eileen Cropley at the Citadel Dance Center, and decided to stay after her directorship with BCD had ended.  Lari began working extensively in the community for organizations such as the Boys and Girls Club of Benton Harbor, Children’s Music Workshop, and high schools across Southwest Michigan choreographing musicals, concert pieces, and teaching all forms of dance.

Lari founded her own company, The Stage Project, in 2005, fusing talent from across Southwest Michigan in shows written to inform audiences about the history of American forms of music and dance.  In 2007, Lari was married and took a job in Lansing directing the dance program at Everett Performing Arts Magnet High School.  Summer though, drew her back to the lakeshore where she and Paul Mow founded  their musical theatre workshop, B.E.S.T..  That fall, Lari returned to the Citadel and began directing the company, the Citadel Dancers.