Lakey Evans-Peña, born in Reading, Pennsylvania, discovered her passion for dance as a little girl. After earning her BFA in Dance from The University of Arts in Philadelphia, Lakey moved to New York, where she received a scholarship to The Ailey School and soon afterwards an invitation to join Ailey II, where she danced for three seasons. Lakey has danced with Donald Byrd/The Harlem Nutcracker, City Opera, and freelanced with numerous choreographers including Ron Brown, Nathan Trice, Eleo Pomare, Vernard Gilmore, Jacqulyn Buglisi, Kevin Wynn, Cecelia Marta, and Milton Myers.

As a member of the Ailey family, Lakey discovered her zest for education through the Ailey’s National Outreach Program with Arts In Education, which allowed her to travel across the country and engage an incredibly diverse spectrum of different people. Over the past 20 years, Lakey has been on the teaching faculty of The Ailey School (including Ailey Camp and a Horton instructor with their partnership with Professional Performing Arts School/PPAS), The American Dance Festival (teaching and resetting Mr. Ailey’s Escapades & Isba works), Hollins University, Ballet Hispanico, Peridance, and as a guest teacher for Broadway Dance Center and NYU Tisch. For the past 3 years Lakey has been the adjudicator with Melanie Person on the audition tour for the Ailey/Fordham BFA Program and The Ailey School’s Summer Intensive.

She is a CPT specializing in pre/post-natal fitness, TRX, Pilates Mat, and Functional Stability -Postural training. She was a contributor and featured artist in The Method Series, a dance/pilates fitness fusion DVD collection.

Lakey founded Williamsburg Movement and Arts Center to help individuals of all backgrounds discover their inner artist and dancing spirit. Her mission is to develop and sustain dance.