Jennifer Lauren is an American artist, choreographer, rehearsal coach, dance instructor and former prima ballerina with Miami City Ballet. As a choreographer, Jennifer Lauren began collaborating with New World Symphony and Miami City Ballet in 2024. Lauren's choreographic voice has been shaped by 27 years of working with ballet's most visionary artists. As a principal dancer she originated roles in works by Alexei Ratmansky The Fairy's Kiss and Symphonic Dances, Justin Peck’s Heatscape, Pontus Lidberg’s Petrichor as well as in works by Liam Scarlett, Durante Verzola, Brian Brooks and others. Working closely with Ratmansky on his reconstruction of the ballet masterpiece, Swan Lake, Lauren developed a deep interest in both creating new works and restoring historical repertory. Lauren's repertoire spans over 20 Balanchine ballets and principal roles in works by Jerome Robbins, Twyla Tharp, Paul Taylor, Christopher Wheeldon, Sir Frederick Ashton, and classical ballets including Giselle, Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Firebird, Coppelia, Carnival in Venice, Don Quixote and others. 

Lauren rose from Corps de Ballet to Principal Dancer twice during her career, at both Alabama Ballet and Miami City Ballet, retiring in December 2024 after 18 seasons with MCB. Lauren’s retirement was celebrated by MCB for two performances, after she danced the Divertissement Pas de deux in George Balanchine's A Midsummer Night's Dream, and a second time after taking her final bows as a dancer following her performance as the Sugarplum Fairy in George Balanchine's, The Nutcracker. In her last year at MCB, Lauren taught company class and shadowed Artistic Director Lourdes Lopez in her artistic and administrative duties. 

Lauren first trained with regional schools, The Royal Academy of Dance, Alabama Ballet and American Ballet Theatre Summer Intensives. In 1998, at age 16, she joined Alabama Ballet under the direction of Wes Chapman & Roger Van Fleteren. In her nine years under Chapman, she performed Principal roles in many full-length classics including Giselle, Firebird, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Romeo and Juliet, Swan Lake, Don Quixote and others, as well as many Principal Balanchine roles. In 2007, Lauren joined Miami City Ballet in the Corps de Ballet and was promoted to Soloist in 2011, by Edward Villella. In 2014, she was named one of Dance Magazine’s “Top 25 to Watch.” In 2017, she was promoted to Principal at Miami City Ballet by Lourdes Lopez. Lauren also credits as mentors, Bolshoi Ballerina Tatiana Ledovskikh, Darla Hoover, Roma Sosenko, Joan Latham, Arnold Quintane, Amanda McKerrow, Cynthia Harvey, Shawn Black and Tracy Alvey.