KERI LAGRAND

Tremaine National Performance Program Director

DANCE STYLES: JAZZ | LYRICAL | CONTEMPORARY

Keri was born in Fountain Valley, California – otherwise known as the O.C., where she began dancing at age three. She was hooked! When she was about eight years old, Keri started training to be a gymnast but after a year, she knew that dance was where her heart was. Around the same time her family moved to Moreno Valley, California, and when she was 13 she began attending dance conventions, even winning many “Best Dancer of the Weekend” titles and a Year-long Scholarship at Tremaine! Keri credits the conventions as what inspired her to pursue dance as a career. Seeing the dancers assisting classes on stage and then feeling the rush of adrenaline when she was competing, she knew dance was calling to her. Though she says during high school, she was a bit undecided, as she was torn between becoming a performer and pursuing her curiosity about anatomy as a heart surgeon. However, at 17 when she booked her first professional dance job, she knew she had found her true path. Later, at 19, Keri moved to Hollywood (trivia – her first roommate was Ray Leeper) to further pursue her professional dance career and she’s never looked back.

She has danced on the MTV Awards with Jennifer Lopez, the American Music Awards with Cher and Toni Braxton, was featured in the film “I’ll Do Anything” and appeared in commercials for 7-Up, Sonyand the MGM Grand Hotel. She was also featured in the “Celebrity Skin” video with Courtney Loveand can be seen on Jennifer Lopez’s “Let’s Get Loud – Live from Puerto Rico” DVD. Keri recognizes two people who were her primary influences in her training and love for technique. The first is Julie Rhoton, owner of Inspirations Performing Arts Center in Moreno Valley, who taught her about the value of discipline, and gave her a place to test her boundaries and really develop who she wanted to be as a dancer without compromise. She would also like to recognize Paula Morgan. Julie was one of Paula’s original students and introduced Keri to her at 18. She says Paula showed her that there is beauty in mastery and took her technical training to a level that she never knew was possible for her. Most of all she says Paula taught her the value of a great teacher, one who leads a student beyond their own boundaries, one who holds a higher vision no matter how stuck the student feels! Keri prides herself on embodying these principals while influencing young minds and souls during her travels as a master teacher and choreographer all over the world. She is also the creator of one our most popular new Teacher’s classes, the “Strength & Stretch” class, for which she has just published her first syllabus. Keri is a valued member of the Tremaine family and we are extremely proud to have her as a faculty member.