Lori Ana Piazza is of Puerto-Rican descent, born and raised in New York City. She is trained in ballet, jazz, hip hop, bomba, west-African dance, and specifically mambo and chacha. She began dancing mambo professionally at the age of 14 with a youth dance company called Young Ambition and performed and taught all over the country. An accomplished performer by 18, Lori then joined Abakua Afro-Latin Dance Company where she was a principal dancer and performed and taught worldwide as well as performing at such stages as Lincoln Center, Jacob’s Pillow and Museo del Barrio.
She has become an accomplished teacher having had classes at Djoniba Drum and Dance Centre, Empire Dance Studios, You Should Be Dancing, Cumbe Center for African Dance and in high schools and elementary schools in New York. Lori has also earned her BA in Psychology and Dance at Hunter College and is currently working on a Masters in Early Childhood Education.