Fayetteville Dance Company was established in 2018 by Owner and Artistic Director, Lauren Clemons. We are now going into our 7th season as 'FDC'. Our staff is passionate about providing technical dance and performance education to students across Northwest Arkansas. We offer both competitive and non-competitive dance experiences for ages 3 & up. Dancers have the opportunity to study Ballet, Pointe, Tap, Jazz, Lyrical, Contemporary, Hip-Hop, and Acrobatics.
Our instructors bring with them a lifelong love for dance. FDC staff is professional, hard-working, and talented. Each member of our team is passionate about the development of our students into incredible dancers and outstanding members of our community.
Lauren Clemons is the Owner and Artistic Director of Fayetteville Dance Company. Miss Lauren grew up dancing in Fayetteville and taught all throughout Northwest Arkansas before taking ownership of FDC. She took over FDC in 2018 with the goal of creating a space for people to express themselves through dance, gaining confidence in themselves along the way.
The dance studio is where Lauren has always felt most at home and she knew from a young age that she wanted to help recreate this feeling for others. Her passion for dance and teaching has allowed her to impact the lives of so many students across NWA. Lauren works hard to create an environment where both her students and staff thrive. Going into her 5th season as Owner and Director, she is looking forward to what this season brings!
Outside of the studio, Miss Lauren loves to spend time with her husband, Dillon, and their 3 dogs - Luna, Lucious, and Bruno.
Carly is a former student of Miss Lauren and is now in her 3rd season as an instructor at FDC. Carly loves working at FDC and considers it her home. Miss Carly is a University of Arkansas alumni and is a former member of the Razorback Pom Squad!
Carly loves to spend time by the pool or at the lake and loves traveling to the beach. Miss Carly also has a hidden talent… She can rap the full Prince of Bel Air theme song.
Sydney is originally from Jonesboro, Arkansas and is a 2018 graduate of the Conservatory of Theater & Dance located at Southeast Missouri State University. She graduated with her BFA in Dance and joined the staff of Fayetteville Dance Company for their first season.
She has previously danced professionally with Northwest Arkansas Ballet Theater and trained with Ballet Chicago and Ballet Memphis. This is her 15th year teaching dance and her 6th season with FDC. Sydney loves watching each dancer grow year after year and seeing them get more confident in their craft.
Olivia began dancing at the age of 2 in Dallas, TX and started competing nationally at age 5. She is a proud alum of Next Step Dance Performing Arts Center in Frisco, TX, where she trained under numerous renowned choreographers including Michelle Stafford, Nick Bass, Misha Gabriel, Joey Dowling, Martha Nichols, Lauren Adams, Katelyn Harris, and Nick Dinicolangelo, among many others.
Olivia began teaching her own choreography in high school, where she was the captain of the Hillcrest Panaders for two years. She continued to choreograph and perform as a member of the University of Arkansas Razorback Pom Squad from 2017 until she graduated in 2021. Olivia earned her Bachelor’s degree in Business Management at the Sam M. Walton College of Business, and currently works for Paramount Global in Rogers, AR.
She has instructed and choreographed for studios and school teams of all ages across Northwest Arkansas and the Dallas area since 2015 and continues to strive for excellence in creativity, artistry, and technique.
Ellie grew up doing competitive gymnastics and started dancing at the age of 11. She continued to do competitive dance and dance team all through high school. She grew up in Olathe, KS and is currently a student at the University of Arkansas pursuing a nursing degree. Ellie loves teaching acro as it allows her to utilize her background in both dance and gymnastics. Her favorite part about teaching is getting to connect with her students and watching them achieve their goals!
Zoe was born in Austin, Texas, but has lived most of her life in Sydney, Australia. She began ballet at age eleven and quickly realized that she wanted to pursue dancing as a career. She trained with Kate Hiron and Shannon Briscoe at her home studio, Industry Performing Arts, before beginning full-time training at Sydney College of Dance under Xanthe Geeves where she obtained her Diploma of Dance. She continued her training at Tanya Pearson Academy with Lucinda Dunn OAM and Xanthe Geeves where she had the opportunity to perform in act two of Swan Lake, and Balleverdi by Wim Broeckx at the Sydney International Ballet Gala. Also having a passion for neoclassical and contemporary Dance, Zoe was the winner of the Sydney Eisteddfod Contemporary Solo Scholarship in the 19 years and over age category in 2022. Zoe also completed all of her vocational RAD examinations and studied the solo seal syllabus. She attended Orlando Ballet School’s Summer Intensive in 2023 and later moved to California in September of that year to dance as a trainee with State Street Ballet. Here, she had the opportunity to perform in the corps de ballet in Giselle and The Nutcracker. She was also selected to tour with the company for Giselle later that season. Zoe is excited to join Northwest Arkansas Ballet Theatre for her first season as a company dancer and to be teaching at Fayetteville dance company!
Madeline Payne is a dancer/teacher/choreographer from Houston, TX. She began her dance career at the age of 3 at Boni’s Dance and Performing Arts training in numerous styles. She also competed with Koenig Dance Company for 3 years before transitioning into a pre-professional program, Artistic Soul Dance Company, under the direction of Jade Whitmire. Madeline has attended SoulEscape, Rifflette, and the Elite Training Program with Kim McSwain, which allowed her to learn from a variety of dance educators around the country. Over the years, Madeline has been fortunate enough to learn from choreographers such as Terrill Mitchell, Christian Denice, Jess Hendricks, Jason Gorman, Alexa Anderson, Justin Giles, Joshua Manculich, Maddi Burg, Jason Janas, and Anthony Morgerato. She has performed in shows such as The Iris by Lenorris Arnold and Spaces Dance Concert presented by HTX Connect in Houston, TX. Madeline performed with NobleMotion Dance Company under the direction of Andrew and Dionne Noble. She later received the opportunity to perform at the American College Dance Association in Austin, TX as well as the Martha Graham Studio Theatre in New York City, NY for WestFest Dance Festival. Madeline is grateful for everyone who has contributed to her art form.
Cortney is originally from Dallas, Texas where she was a competitive dancer for 8 years. After graduating high school, she attended the University of Arkansas and spent 5 years working with The Art Of Motion and Fayetteville Youth Dance Company. In 2016, she relocated to New York City but from afar, has been working behind the scenes with Fayetteville Dance Company since its first season. She most recently spent 4 years in California studying naturopathic medicine and in June graduated with her Doctorate in Naturopathic Medicine. She is excited to be back in NWA, being a naturopathic doctor by day and working at FDC by night!
