BallroomXtraordinaire

More About me

I’m just A Corporate Executive and a Ballroom Dance Artist Bridging a connection between Business and the Arts.

tHE Corporate Artist

Lane Swenson

Born and Raised in Austin, TX, Lane Swenson, AKA The Corporate Artist, is an award-winning choreographer, coach, dance artist, and scholar. As a ballroom dancer of many years, he has strived and succeeded in developing his dance form to encapsulate the ever changing world that we currently live in. 

As a former student in business, Lane didn’t begin his professional career in the arts until 2013. Lane has spent many of his former years at one of the world’s largest private sector retail chains as an HR specialist while pursuing his love and education in the arts. As an individual who loves unique and oxymoronic connections, Lane’s love and connection to the corporate world and the arts, gives him his unique title as ‘The Corporate Artist’.

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Artist Statement

As an artist as well as an academic, I have always been on a journey of knowledge and self-understanding. Every piece of written and choreographic work that I create is personal. My goals, my passions, my thoughts, and my dreams all find their way, at one point or another, into my written and choreographic works. 

I have a passionate love for humanity and all of the things that we are, even our struggles. Oftentimes, I find the creation of my work has the ability to impact the lives of those around me. I often find myself drawn to simple narrative stories that have the ability to share very humane stories. While, I have the ability to create abstract works that allow my audiences to think and reflect, I find the greatest amount of joy when I present an audience with a story that is simple to understand and has the power to connect to so many different kinds of people. 

As a primarily commercial based and mainstream artist, I have found that I have the power to impact a large community of people, even those who might be unfamiliar with dance as a whole. As an ambassador for my form, I take great responsibility to pioneer new ideas for its development. While I truly value the opportunity to present flashy and exciting choreography for a lively and enthusiastic audience; I make points to challenge them as well. Oftentimes, I have created works that present unique and different ideas while still maintaining a nostalgic and familiar feel. I have found that even in communities who might be resistant to the idea of change, my work is still often recognized and appreciated. 

Right now, the world around me is full of misunderstandings and poor human connection. The result is constant fighting, bloodshed, and hardships. I have found that sometimes, the way to bridge a gap is to meet somewhere in the middle where everyone gets a chance to share their voice and compromise can be reached. I stand by the statement that there is an opportunity for tolerance and respect regardless of what walk of life we come from. 

Full Biography

Lane Swenson was born in Austin, TX to a single mother and his passion for the arts began at a young age with Music and Theater. Upon High School graduation he attended St. Mary’s University – San Antonio where he obtained his first Bachelors degree in Business Management. During his time at St. Mary’s University , Lane developed and spearheaded the incredibly successful program, Dancing with the Students, a Ballroom dance Registered Student Organization, that evolved into a showcase lead ballroom dance program for the university.

Upon graduation, Lane moved to Utah where he obtained a second set of degrees, a Bachelor’s of Science in University Studies with a focus on Ballroom Dance Theory and Choreography and an Associates of Science in Political Science/History in 2021. While in Utah, Lane danced with the UVU Ballroom dance company for 5 years. During his time at UVU, he was the first university student to create and develop an adult formation team where his team took 2nd at the 2019 USA Dance National Championships. In the summer of 2017, Lane was selected as an ambassador of Dance and traveled with a small performance group to tour three major cities in China (Shanghai, Beijing, and Hong Kong). During his final year, Lane also was the first UVU student to obtain a Ballroom Dance Teaching Certification through the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing.

Upon moving to Arizona, Lane obtained his first professional teaching position as a K-12 Ballroom dance educator at ALA Gilbert-North 7-12 branch of the American Leadership Academy Charter Schools. During his time, Lane was responsible for the program and curriculum development of the Ballroom Dance program. During his tenure, the Ballroom program witnessed a surge of popularity and enrollment which included additional classes and two separate performance teams. In March of 2023, Revolution Dance Company, Gilbert North’s Competitive Ballroom Team, attended and competed at the Gem State Classic National Showdance Championships in Idaho Falls, ID where they won the National Title for Division 3 Swing Dance.

Currently, Lane is a third year MFA Dance Candidate at Arizona State University where he is developing a his final thesis project with the ambitions to integrate it into higher education dance departments. 

Living Headshot

Research Statement

My research centers on the interdisciplinary approach of exploring Ballroom dance as a global phenomenon and an emerging sphere for scholarly inquiry.  Currently, Ballroom dancing is often excluded in higher education dance departments and the scope of inquiry is often limited in various publications of dance history, dance analysis, research methodologies, and even dance appreciation texts. 

As an undergraduate student, my capstone thesis explored the idea that the lack of artistic merit was the direct result of the exclusion of Ballroom dance within higher education. As a result, I chose a choreographic approach of merging various contemporary dance choreographic elements to the deeply codified nature of Ballroom dance. The result was the presentation of a small dance concert showcasing the ideas and obtaining quantitative data from my audience with the understanding that the integration of more contemporary elements showcased a different side to what we as a society knows Ballroom dance to be. 

Upon entry into graduate school, my research continued to develop as my role within Dance Education and Somatics continued to develop. Per the requirements of my degree program, I have chosen to develop a formal graduate thesis which explores the development of a more culturally – relevant Ballroom Dance teaching certification program and how that has the two-fold ability to address problematic elements of the form while also integrating itself within a colligate dance education program. One of the problematic areas that I began to understand were issues of cultural exclusion and appropriation of the form. One of my literature reviews for a Dance History course at the graduate level was appropriation of black culture and the appropriation of the dance forms in the early 1900s by Arthur Murray. 

Currently, I have been approved to teach a course that I designed titled ‘Ballroom Dance Studies’ which explores the social and cultural context in which Ballroom dance is formed. The course itself is a 7-week course online/lecture-based course that utilizes various scopes of inquiry to explore the concept of what Ballroom Dancing is. Racial and Gender studies, history, art vs. sport, and peace and religious studies are just a few that will be utilized in the course. My research and course intends to contribute to a more inclusive framework that has the opportunity to foster dialogs across various cultures and disciplines regarding my form.

At the heart of my research is just a deep yearning to develop and pioneer new ideas and evolutions for Ballroom dance and to see it thrive as a new form of scholarship within a collegiate dance department. My hope is that, given time and support, many individuals who have contributed to the cultural dance forms that make up elements of what we understand as Ballroom dance, will come together to assist in the development of this dance form.