Lori Bradford

Lori Lynn Bradford was born and raised in Miami, Florida and began her dance training at the age of 5. Her older sister Denise, was born with a dislocated hip, which caused a limp when she walked. The doctors advised Lori’s parents to put Denise in dance classes as physical therapy. As soon as Lori was able to walk, while observing Denise in her ballet classes, Lori would continually dance in the waiting area while her sister was in class. As soon as she turned 5, Lori’s mother put her in those ballet classes. She continued training and performing in Ballet, Jazz and Musical Theatre. Later at Miami Palmetto High School, 1972-75, she was a member of the Modern Dance Team performing in the Orange Bowl half times and parades. She was also the President of the Art Club, winning many awards and scholarships for her art. While living in Florida, she performed with The Now Ballet Theatre (NBT) Miami, and in TV commercials, movies, theatre, & dance concerts. As a former member of the Screen Actors Guild, she acted or performed stunts in 13 movies acting with stars such as Paul Newman and Sally Fields. Later, she went to Miami Dade Community College, and joined Orchesis Dance Troupe. In 1977 she went to Florida State University (FSU) to major in Dance and Art, where she also performed with The Tallahassee Civic Ballet and did the Aerial Ballet with the FSU Flying High Circus, graduating in 1979.

In August of 1980, she met her husband Ethan and a few years later, they decided to move to Alaska where Ethan was from. After arriving to Anchorage in June of 1983 Lori began working for Alaska Dance Theatre (ADT) with Alice Bassler Sullivan. From 1983-1996 Ms. Bradford was passionate about teaching at ADT where she taught Ballet and Children’s Dance Theatre. She also taught in the Anchorage Community Schools, Alaska Artists in Education and East High School; where she also did her student teaching under Claire Gentile. In September of 1990 Lori received a phone call from the Principal of West Anchorage High School (WHS) asking, “Do you want to start a Dance Program at West?” And she said an excited, unequivocal yes! And the rest is history!

Lori holds a Bachelor's in Arts in Visual Communications & Dance from Florida State University, and received her Physical Education and Dance Certification from the University of Alaska Anchorage, (UAA). While at UAA she worked as the assistant dance coach and choreographer for the UAA Gymnastics Team. She since has completed her Master's equivalent from UAA and Alaska Pacific University. Her Awards include: 2 times BP Teachers of Excellence Awards, Dance Educator of the year nomination, Anchorage School District's (ASD) Yak'ei and Quiana Awards, Hope Community Resources “The Light of Hope” Award, Anchorage Concert Association's Outstanding Arts Educator Award, The Block Foundation's Exceptional Teacher Award, and The Alaska Legislature Honor Award. In Anchorage she has performed with; ADT, Xsight!, Alaska Light Opera Theatre, Alaska Contemporary Dance Company (ACDC) , & Mikhail Baryshinokov's "White Oak Dance Project". Her choreography has been performed by NBT, The Anchorage Opera, Miss Alaska USA Pageants, UAA, East High's Contempo, ADT's Mobius, and DanceWest.

Lori retired from ASD in 2017, after 27 years vested at WHS. During her time teaching at West she was West High School’s, Dance Program creator, Director, and choreographer for DanceWest 1990-2017. Lori was also the main costume designer and seamstress making most of the costumes in the performances. During her time at WHS Lori directed 2-3 dance performances each year, sometimes with as many as 140 dancers in front of sold out audiences! What was most important to Lori when it came to her goals for DanceWest was not only to teach dance technique, but more importantly, to encourage the human interaction, mutual respect and connections that dance inspired for her students. By challenging her students to improve their dance technique Lori aimed to help them increase their self esteem and to empower them to become more confident healthy young people through a positive dance environment. Lori had the privilege of teaching thousands of amazing students at WHS such as Becky Kendall cofounder of Momentum Dance Collective, Gabe Harvey, and Kris Palmatier cofounders of Underground Dance Company and Ives Viray “icyives” one of the founders of Flow Zone Dance Studio, to name a few and there are many more!

Since retiring Lori has rekindled her love for drawing and painting, doing pet portraits and other art for her commission business @myartmadewithlove. She has also been creating costumes and “Wearable Art”, enjoying traveling with her adventurous husband Ethan, and in the summer spending time gardening. Lori's love and passion for the Arts, especially dance has carried her through her life, and will continue throughout her future.