KAREN BERNARD began studying dance at age three with her father, Steven Bernard, a company member with Charles Weidman. Following studies at the Boston Museum School of Fine Arts and London School of Contemporary Dance, she began to perform and create work. At the Tate Gallery in London she was the muse for an installation and live performance based on tap dancing 101 by conceptual artist David Tremlett. She choreographed and performed a satirical variation of Les Sylphides for Captain Beefheart’s 1973 British tour beginning at the Royal Albert Hall.

In 1974 she moved to New York City and began to create group and solo work in collaboration with her husband, visual artist, Scott Wixon and experimental composers through the support of Meet The Composer. As Karen Bernard/Solo she produced several full-length concerts of her work between 1986-98 at Dia Center for Arts.

In 1993 Bernard received The Field’s Independent Artist Challenge Program Grant and was a 1997-98 Movement Research Resident Artist. In addition, her work has received support from the Experimental Television Center, The Puffin Foundation, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, and Meet The Composer.

Karen Bernard/Solo has been presented by The Kitchen curated by Tere O’Connor, BAX/Brooklyn Arts Exchange, Dance Theater Workshop, “Fresh Tracks”, Danspace, Dixon Place, Here Arts Center; Larry Keigwin’s Kabaret at Symphony Space, Movement Research at Judson Church, Performance Space 122 and PS1 Contemporary Arts Center. She has performed, taught and lectured in Canada, United States and abroad through “Her Position In Transition”, a women’s festival, (Vienna), Studio 303 (Montréal), Hysteria at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre (Toronto), Festival of New Dance at Neighbourhood Dance Works (St. John’s Newfoundland), La Rotonde (Quebec City), School for New Dance Development (Amsterdam) Tangente (Berlin), Philadelphia Fringe Festival, Museum of Contemporary Art (Chicago), and Boston Museum School of Fine Arts.

Bernard was a delegate to the 2006 Performance Creation Canada conference in Whitehorse, Yukon and recently a guest speaker at the Festival of New Dance in St. John’s Newfoundland. She has been featured on public television through New Arts Alive, Pennsylvania, BCTV; EGG, Channel 13, Who’s the Art Boss?; and Eye On Dance, Dance And The Plastic Arts: The Visual Impulse In Dance. She is a guest artist/teacher at Trinity College’s LaMama program and facilitates Fieldwork. Bernard is a 2006 BAX10 award recipient for the founding and development of New Dance Alliance and its services to the field through the Performance Mix Festival.

Removed Exposure - photo by Sheilagh O’Leary