“The mastermind behind Porch View Dances” Toronto Star, she develops performance platforms provoking collaborative relationships between dancers, everyday people and the body. She integrates community and public participation through interactive performance strategies such as her audience inclusive Flock Landing installations. Karen’s awards include the 2019 Dance Ontario Lifetime Achievement Award, the CDA “I Love Dance” Community Award and the Paul D. Fleck Fellowship for Innovation (Banff). Her performances, choreography and creations have received 7 Dora Mavor Moore nominations, including quadrupal Dora nominations for Crave which won one. Karenis distinguished in The Canadian Who’s Who, was a finalist for the TAF Muriel Sherrin Award for International achievement, the CDA Innovation Award, NOW’s Best Local Choreographer and twice nominated for NOW’s Best Dance Company. An image maker, Karen’s choreography “paints portraits with moving bodies” Toronto Star. Commissioned, presented and touring globally from NFLD to Israel to Japan, she was the first resident dance artist for both MUN/Dance NL and the Guelph Dance Festival.Karen is a mentor and dramaturge for many instrumental dance artists plus Stratford’s first movement dramaturge for their upcoming 2020 production of Wendy and Peter Pan. She is Co-Artistic Director of Kaeja d’Dance with Allen Kaeja, and with Claudia Moore of Cloud 9. She is currently working on several commissions and performances for 2020 and 2021 including premieres at Citadel and Company’s Bright Nights, The Bentway and Harbourfront Centre Theatre. www.kaeja.org