Karen Fisher Doyle (Artistic Director) is a dancer and choreographer celebrated by audiences and critics alike for her emotionally rich movement and fierce commitment on stage. For the past twenty five years her professional career has taken her through intense studies, performance and choreography in ballet, modern dance, flamenco and ultimately aerial dance. Karen has a B.S. in Nursing with a Minor in Theatre Dance from NIU, strongly influenced under the Direction of Randy Newsom. After college, flamenco became a big part of her career in which she performed locally as well as internationally with Azucena Vega’s Soul and Duende Spanish Dance Theatre.  She went on to perform with various flamenco and modern dance companies including the cutting edge choreographer Bob Eisen in the 90’s and imaginative Clinard Dance Theatre, ultimately joining Aerial Dance Chicago in 2003.  Teaming up with Creative Director Chloe Jensen, Karen was honored to accept the Artistic Director position in 2013,  embracing Aerial Dance Chicago's unique vision of dance not bound to the traditional stage. She has staged over 25 choreographies in the aerial dance genre, and her focus on lush discoveries of dance in theatre spaces is what the Chicago Tribune describes in her work as “hypnotic, spellbinding and meditative” choreography. Through the years, Karen has been empowered by ADC’s vision of combining the athleticism and adventure of aerial movement with the creative voice of contemporary dance.  She received Curators Choice Award for her choreography twice at the Around the Coyote Festival and has been a recipient of the Chicago CAAP Grant which took her to Boston to study with Omayra Amaya. She embraces movement through emotion, strength and vulnerability, finding spectrums that stretch from one end to the other. Her choreographic work has been presented at Millennium Park, The Grand Ballroom of the Drake Hotel, Ruth Page Center for the Arts, Athenaeum Theater, Prairie Center For the Arts, Vittum Theater, Links Hall, North Shore Center for Performing Arts, Lobero Theatre in Santa Barbara and Touhill Performing Arts Center in St Louis.  She has been honored for her work to appear  in multiple festivals including Dance Chicago, Harvest Chicago Contemporary Dance Festival, and Spring to Dance, as well as collaborative projects creating spectacle performances with Redmoon Theater and Elements Contemporary Ballet with her creative partner Chloe Jensen. In addition, Karen started her teaching career at Homer Bryant Ballet the home of CMDC and has transitioned through the years teaching classes in the aerial arts.  She has been a feature teacher and performing artist at the Santa Barbara Floor to Air Dance Festival in 2015 and has head up intensives and workshops in the ADC studio over the years. Apart from directing for the company, Karen is currently on faculty at the ADC school and teaches kids and professional dancers the detail and emotive potential in this dynamic art form. Karen is grateful to ADC for the opportunity to create art, and continues to enjoy collaborative exchanges among dance artists and Directors Chloe and Kip, relishing in choreography that pulls from emotion, strength, vulnerability and the endless possibilities aerial dance has to offer.

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