Stansova's mother, father and sister escaped from communist Czechoslovakia, lived in Israel, Greece, Italy and Germany. She learned to dance in Harlem and Haiti, got her BA in Latin American, Portuguese and Brazilian Studies from Brown University, then completed her pre-med requirement at Purchase College, State University of New York. To the shock of her family and friends Stansova pursued a career in Theatre Arts. She also studied acting with the formidable Kim Stanley.
For twenty years, Dagmar Stansova avoided writing about this complex issue of how traumas are passed from one generation to the next until she met her director and dramaturg Debra De Liso who "put her hands under her art" and Loose Underwear was born.
