Karen is an emotional performer and choreographer who loves to embrace the landscape possibilities on stage since the early 90’s, taking her professional career through intense studies in ballet, modern dance, flamenco and ultimately Aerial Dance. Karen has a B.S in Nursing with a Minor in Theatre Dance from NIU, where she studied ballet, modern and classical Spanish dance. 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 in Chicago including the cutting edge choreographer Bob Eisen and imaginative Clinard Dance Theatre, ultimately joining Aerial Dance Chicago in 2003. Through the years Karen has thoroughly enjoyed creating choreography for ADC, in addition to performing! She received the Curators Choice Award for her choreography twice in the Around the Coyote Dance Festival and has been a recipient of the Chicago CAAP Grant which took her to Boston to study under the direction of Omayra Amaya. Karen started her teaching career at Homer Bryant Ballet the home of CMDC, and was recently invited as a feature artist at the Santa Barbara Floor to Air Dance Festival in 2015. She currently teaches kids and professional dancers at the ADC space weekly with a focus on transition, detail and emotive potential in this dynamic art form.