An award-winning choreographer, costume designer and dance scholar, Laurel Victoria Gray specializes in women's dance of the Islamic World and of Silk Road cultures. In 2007, she was awarded on honorary doctorate by the Ministry of Culture of Uzbekistan for her work in promoting and preserving Central Asian dance. She is the recipient of the 2006 Metro DC Dance Award for Excellence in Costume Design; the 2005 Distinguished Service Award from the Embassy of Uzbekistan; the 2003 Kennedy Center Local Dance Commissioning Project Award; and the International Academy of Middle Eastern Dance (IAMED) Awards for Best Choreographer (2003) and Best Ethnic Dancer (1999). She is a four time finalist for the Metro DC Dance Awards.

Dr. Gray is the Artistic Director of both the Silk Road Dance Company (SRDC), a Resident Arts Partner at Joy of Motion Dance Center, and Ensemble Mumtaz, a Joy of Motion Student Ensemble. She has inspired thousands of students, both amateur and professional, giving workshops, concerts, and lectures throughout Europe, Central Asia, Australia , the United States and Canada . Although her early dance training included ballet, tap, folk and modern dance, she first discovered Middle Eastern folk music and dance in high school and, in 1975, began formal lessons in Arabic dance. She continued lessons in various Middle Eastern dance forms along with her academic studies at Occidental College , the University  of Waterloo , and the University of Washington . Dr. Gray has traveled extensively, including twelve trips to Uzbekistan  where she studied for two years at the invitation of Tashkent 's State Academic Bolshoi Theater.

Dr. Gray's scholarly articles have appeared in many publications including the Oxford University Press International Encyclopedia of Dance, the World Encyclopedia of Contemporary Theater, the Encyclopedia of Modern Asia, the Encyclopedia of Women in Islamic Culture, Dance Magazine as well as foreign dance journals.In 1990, she was an education outreach instructor for New York's City Center Theater, introducing thousands of middle school students to Soviet Georgian dance. For several years she gave instruction in Persian dance at the Iranian Community School in Vienna , Virginia .

In 1984, Dr. Gray founded the Uzbek Dance and Culture Society and in 1994 established the annual Central Asian Dance Camp. She has taught "Dances of the Islamic World" and "Dances of Egypt" as Adjunct Faculty at George Mason University and George Washington University . Gray has lectured at the First and Second International Conferences on Middle Eastern dance as well as the 2006 Inaugural Conference on Near and Middle Eastern Dance at Connecticut College.

Greatly influenced by her dance studies on five continents, Dr. Gray has created a system for Middle Eastern and Persian dance. She combines both Eastern and Western teaching methodology in her classes, encouraging students to refine their technique while building confidence and exploring self-expression. She believes that since dance predates spoken language as a form of human communication, we all can access it as a universal source of joy and ecstasy.

For more information on Dr. Gray, visit
www.laurelvictoriagray.com
www.silkroaddance.com
www.uzbekdance.org
www.egypta.com