By Steve Sucato*

After a 20-year professional performance career, Cleveland Ballet’s Lauren Stenroos is retiring from the company as a dancer this weekend, following the company’s performances of Robert Weiss’ Messiah with the Cleveland Chamber Choir and BlueWater Chamber Orchestra at KeyBank State Theatre in Cleveland. 

A Bath, Ohio native, Stenroos began her dance training at Nan Klinger’s Excellence in Dance and the Cuyahoga Valley Youth Ballet. She earned a B.A. in Dance with a minor in Music Composition from Mercyhurst University. She then danced professionally with Dayton Ballet, James Sewell Ballet, Texture Contemporary Ballet, Ballet Montana, and Nashville Ballet II before becoming a founding member of the reconstituted Cleveland Ballet in 2015. Stenroos is also a ballet teacher, a composer, and a certified Pilates instructor, as the owner of Stone Rose Pilates. 

Her final performances after a decade as a Cleveland Ballet company member will be on Friday, March 20, at 7 p.m., and Sunday, March 22, at 2 p.m., in Messiah as a featured soloist. 

Recently, Stenroos spoke about her dance career and what is next for her. 

What inspired you to want to study dance?
When I was 5 years old, a neighbor next door gave my mom and me tickets to see Cuyahoga Youth Ballet’s production of Carneval of the Animals. I remember watching the performance and thinking I want to do that. My mom then asked our neighbor where her daughter took dance classes, and then signed me up for classes there at Nan Klinger’s Excellence in Dance studio in Cuyahoga Falls.

How was it?
From the moment I walked into the room, I was hooked and fell in love with dance. I loved the movement and the music.

Why has music been almost as important in your life as dance?
My parents both have music degrees. I started piano lessons with my mom at age three, and I think my musical background before I started dancing really made my love of dance deeper from the start, because dance is so intertwined with music.

Why a professional career in ballet and not music?
Music comes naturally to me; I have perfect pitch, and I compose music. If you play a note on the piano, I can tell you what it is. I played the piano, violin, and flute for many years, and they came easily to me. Dancing did not come naturally. It took a lot more effort because I didn’t have the coordination. I loved the challenge of that, and it made me want it more. I wanted to dance beautifully to beautiful music. 

What was it like transitioning from a ballet student to a professional dancer?
The first years of a career as a professional dancer are the hardest. You are trying to figure out your body, who you are as a person, how to work in a new company, and what the artistic director expects of you. It can be a challenging time.

How did your being hypermobile factor into that challenge?
Hypermobility basically means your joints have more leeway. When that happens, your joints have less stability. In some ways, that can help your dancing, and in others, it can make controlling your body a lot harder. You have to learn to create stability in your joints because it is not there naturally. Pilates has helped me develop that control. 

What are some of your favorite roles that you have danced? 
Without a doubt, the lead Russian Girl role in George Balanchine’s Serenade is my all-time favorite. The role is technically demanding, with a lot of jumping, turning, and it requires quite a bit of stamina. I also loved dancing the Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker, Swanilda in Coppelia, the Woodland Glade Fairy in Sleeping Beauty, and Hippolyta in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

What will you miss most about being a full-time company dancer?
I will miss the entire experience: the daily grind of class where you are constantly pushing yourself to be better, being in ‘ballet shape,’ the rehearsal process, and of course, the euphoria and magic of being on stage. I truly love the community and camaraderie among all the dancers, the joyful feeling onstage with my friends, and connecting with audience members after each show.  

What is the best piece of advice you received as a dancer? 
The best piece of advice I have received as a dancer is to let go and trust myself.  I have always had to work on this throughout my career. But it’s such an easy switch to flip to make it happen, but it can seem so daunting and impossible until you do just that. Dancers are workhorses, and with that can come perfectionism. We can be very hard on ourselves, but in moments when I flip the switch and ‘do’ instead of ‘overthink’, things always work best.

What advice do you have for young dancers?
Do it because you love it. Work as hard as you can every single second. A good work ethic will take you farther than anything else. Start cross-training now and become aware of how your body works so you can dance for a long time. Keep in mind, you will never attain perfection, but every day you take class, try to be better than you were the day before.  

What do you portray in Messiah as one of the featured female soloists?
I am dancing as one of the four soloists, my dear friends Maddee [Madison Campbell], Sydney Henson, and Chelsea [Endris]. I feel that at times we represent angelic figures. My favorite sections that we dance together are the Act 1 “Rejoice,” Act 2 “Behold and See,” and the women’s dance in Act 3. These three sections are very different from one another, from joyful and hopeful to showing the strength, power, and resilience of women. At this stage of my career, the greatest gift I could ever receive is to share the stage with all my beloved colleagues one last time. 

What’s next for you?
I will be working full-time as a rehearsal director with Cleveland Ballet. I am so excited to help the next generation of dancers find their voice in the dance world and instill in them the same qualities of excellence I learned at a young age. I plan to keep taking dance class and performing, just not full-time.  

Cleveland Ballet performs Robert Weiss’ Messiah with the Cleveland Chamber Choir and BlueWater Chamber Orchestra, 7 p.m., Friday, March 20 & Saturday, March 21, and 2 p.m., Sunday, March 22, at KeyBank State Theatre, 1519 Euclid Ave., Cleveland, Ohio. Tickets range from $35 to $156 and are available online at playhousesquare.org/events/detail/the-messiah or by phone at (216) 241-6000.

*Portions of this article are taken from Fairmount Center for the Arts’ Pull Back the Curtain Speaker Series: Life of a Cleveland Dancer featuring Stenroos on January 11, 2026, moderated by Megan Sobnosky.