Karen Bernard

Karen Bernard is an interdisciplinary movement-based artist. In her newest work Fleeting Glimpse, she continues to explore the female body’s complexities, juxtaposing the mundane with the extravagant. From the age of three, she was immersed in dance, with her father, Steven Bernard, a company member of Charles Weidman’s pioneering 20th-century dance company. Growing up in his dance school, performance was not a separate activity but the rhythm of daily life. Bernard’s work has been presented in New York City at The Kitchen, Chashama, Center for Performance Research,  Dixon Place, Performance Space 122, and Movement Research at Judson Church, and throughout Canada. Residencies include Bogliasco (Bogliasco, Italy) and Emily Harvey Foundation (Venice, Italy). She has received support from DCA, NYSCA,  Puffin Foundation, and Meet The Composer. Bernard received a BAX 10 award for her invaluable service to artists in the founding and development of the Performance Mix Festival. 

Fleeting Glimpse
A black wooden chair. A black sequined curtain. A black faux fur blanket. A black laptop. A woman with white hair dressed in black sequined shorts and a matching black top. Choreographer Karen Bernard offers these disparate visual elements to the viewer in her latest work, Fleeting Glimpse, only to connect them by revealing their hidden inner vitality. Through surprisingly spare and inventive movement, Bernard demonstrates that movement itself is life, and despite its fleeting and transitory nature, we experience its pulse through gestures, sideways looks, and subtle shifts that reflect an internal light.

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