Lara is an award-winning bellydancer in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her exciting performances bring delight to audiences both on stage and in the more intimate restaurant environment. Lara’s most recent achievement is 2nd place in the prop category at 2012 Jewel of the Sierra Competition with her thrilling sword on tabla dance. Lara was also one of the Final Six in season 2 of the hit web show Project Belly Dance.

In addition to studying belly dance several times a week, she also supplements her dancing education with classes in ballet, hip hop and tango. Lara’s greatest inspiration is her teacher and mentor Sandra but she has learned a great deal from other influential dancers including Maria, Malia deFelice, Suhaila Salimpour, Aziza, Tamalyn Dallal, Tamra Henna, Bozenka, Zahra Zuhair, Tito, Rachel Brice and others.

Although Lara typically performs solo, she also dances in several groups. As the award-winning duet Sassafras, Lara and her dance partner Courtney engage the audience with fun and entertaining performances. Lara is proud to be a part of Khamsin, a professional troupe with upbeat choreographies. Lara is also one third of the award-winning trio Seshata with the other members, Eve and Andreea.

When she’s not dancing her heart out, Lara puts her doctorate in Computer Science from Stanford to good use as a software engineer.