Lara O’Brien grew up in Crystal Lake, Illinois outside Chicago. She began dancing at age 8 and trained with the School of Ballet Chicago and the School of American Ballet in New York City. In 2000, Ms. O’Brien was the Dance American National Cultural Exchange scholarship student and was chosen to train at the Royal Danish Ballet for two months. In 2003 Ms. O’Brien was chosen by Lynne Taylor-Corbett to dance the lead in The Ugly Duckling. Ms. O’Brien has originated several principal roles by Robert Weiss, Lynne Taylor-Corbett, Zalman Raffael, Marin Boieru, Attila Bongar and Tyler Walters and danced several more by George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins and Christopher Stowell.