Born and brought up in the USA, Lauren Gottlieb is one of the most well-known dancers in India today. However, she almost did not choose dance as a child, and it took a gentle push from her mother to set her on a path that would eventually shape her life and career.
On World Dance Day, we caught up with her to talk about that journey, her relationship with dance, and everything it has come to mean over the years.
“Is it too typical to say dance is life?” she says with a laugh, before admitting that stillness has never been an option. “I’m always using my hands, my body. My friends laugh because I’m dancing even when I’m talking.” Over time, that instinct has become something she listens to closely. “If I’m ever in a strange mood, I stop and think why, and then I realise I haven’t danced. It’s something so deep in my soul, my connection to the earth, to the universe.”
It is why she calls dance her “longest love affair.”
That relationship, however, did not begin effortlessly. Growing up in the United States, Gottlieb started dancing at the age of seven, but not with immediate affection. “I actually didn’t like it at first,” she admits. Joining classes later than her peers meant constantly feeling out of step. “Everyone knew what they were doing and I didn’t. I used to cry and beg my mom to let me quit.” Her mother had already paid for the year, so quitting would have to wait.
It was at the end of that year, during a recital, that something shifted. “I came off stage with stars in my eyes. My mom saw it instantly. She knew something had changed.” From there, dance turned into her obsession. She enrolled in classes and learned multiple forms, from jazz and hip hop to ballet, tap, and contemporary. She stayed back after classes, watching older dancers rehearse, then helped clean the studio once they left. “It became like a sanctuary. Almost like a religion.” That discipline, she says, laid the foundation for everything that followed.
After training extensively in the US, she entered So You Think You Can Dance, only to find herself a beginner again when introduced to ballroom and Latin styles. A similar situation awaited her in India. “There was Bollywood, there were classical styles, and again I felt like I was starting from scratch,” she says.
In India, she made her debut with Remo D’Souza’s Any Body Can Dance and also participated in dance reality shows such as Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa. Talking about her inspirations, she recalled meeting the pop legend, Michael Jackson.
“I looked up to Michael Jackson. I got to dance in front of him and shake his hand. I had auditioned for his last tour before he passed away. There were fifteen hundred girls, and I made it down to the final day, where it was just 30 of us dancers. It was incredible.”
And once she started working in India, Madhuri Dixit became a huge inspiration, whom she describes as “classy, most beautiful and elegant dancer, actress and performer.”
Gottlieb also shares her views on the newer dance trends, where proper choreography and training often take backseat to views on social media. She says it is both an opportunity and a risk. “I don’t want to be that person who says things were better before. Today, someone can post a video from their bedroom and go viral. That’s amazing.”
“At the same time, there is a level of discipline and training that might be missing. This industry is not easy. Going viral is one thing, sustaining a career is another.” For her, the basics still matter, from technique to professionalism, all built over years of rigorous training. Her training, she believes, also helped her when she had to improvise on stage during her ongoing tour with Honey Singh.
The dancer-actor recently performed at the 61st Femina Miss India Finale, where she interacted with Ishaan Khatter, an artiste she is keen on collaborating with. Talking about her performance, she reveals that she only got two days to put together a six-minute intense dance performance.
She also speaks about her dream collaborations.
“I actually like to stick in the dancer-actor space because I’m a dancer by birth, but I’m an actor as well. And Ishaan Khatter is someone I’d be really excited to collaborate with. We were messaging recently and singing each other’s praises. Hopefully, one day soon, we could do something together. I was telling him, I admire how he’s trying different things. Just like his brother, Shahid Kapoor, he is a natural talent. And when it comes to choreographers, I would want to work with Prabhudeva.”
While audiences have long associated her with dance, she has been building her identity as an actor, too. Besides ABCD and its sequel, Gottlieb made her Punjabi debut with the film Ambarsariya, where she starred opposite Diljit Dosanjh, while working on other films.
“I feel like I’m just scratching the surface of my work as an actor. I went to New York for two years at an acting university. I trained so hard as a dancer. And I want to equally train as an actor.” Beyond all this, Lauren Gottlieb is also looking forward to building something of her own.
“I’ve spent years being part of other people’s visions. I’ve been in some of the biggest rooms and some of the biggest stages. I helped put together the Oscar performance of Naatu Naatu. So I feel I can also use my mind and build from the ground up.” “So lately I’ve been in different types of meetings, creating from the ground up, instead of jumping on a project or getting booked on the last second,” concludes Gottlieb.
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