Karen Bernard

Karen Bernard is an American choreographer and performance artist. Bernard is the Founder and Director of New Dance Alliance in New York City. .[1]

Early Life
Karen Bernard, photo by Svelta Atanasova

Karen Bernard was born in Brooklyn, NY and grew up in Brookline, MA. She began studying dance at age three under the tutelage of her father, Steven Bernard, a company member with modern dance pioneer Charles Weidman. Her childhood home consisted of a barn, which Bernard’s father renovated to include a large dance studio and office, attached to the family home. The constant flow of students filtering in and out sparked Bernard’s study of performance merging with life itself.

In 1966, Bernard received a three-year scholarship to attend The Boston Museum of Fine Art, but after one year, diverted to join the pilot program of The London School of Contemporary Dance. By 1969, Bernard premiered a solo in collaboration with sculptor David Tremlett at Tate Britain (f.k.a Tate Gallery) and performed an adaptation of Les Sylphide while on tour with Captain Beefheart & His Magical Band at The Royal Albert Hall on March 27, 1972.

Career

Bernard moved to New York City in 1979, where her adult life began to mirror her formative years. Her husband, the painter Scott Wixon, began to renovate a loft in Tribeca to include painting and dance studios, an office and their lng space, where they raised three children. Between 1986 and 1998, Bernard presented a series of solos presented in collaboration with Dia:Chelsea (f.k.a Dia Center for the Arts), most notably Footsteps on the Dance Floor (1996). During this time, she began to steadily integrate projection, popular music, photographs and found objects as performance elements, juxtaposing these with her unique movement quality.

The early aughts saw the premieres of Blue, Star, Dying for Lace, Vinyl (1999) at Danspace at St. Mark’s Church, Removed Exposure (2004) at Dixon Place and Surfing The Shadow (2007) at The Joyce SoHo, among other works. A handmade book for Removed Exposure, was co-created with Canadian bookmaker Gray Fraser. Bernard continued to explore themes of grief, honesty, age and humor throughout these works, often to critical acclaim.

From 2008-2012, Bernard created Ouette, drawing images and sounds from Francois Ozon’s The Swimming Pool, premiering at The Joyce SoHo in 2012.

Bernard has been an Artist in Residence at Movement Research (1997-1998) and Brooklyn Studios for Dance (2018) and served on the Board of Directors at Earthdance from 2011-2013, where she co-founded The E|MERGE Interdisciplinary Collaborative Residency, which continues to this day.

New Dance Alliance

In 1986, Karen Bernard founded New Dance Alliance, Inc., a non-profit organization offering subsidized rehearsal space and artistic residencies and programming, including the renowned Performance Mix Festival. For over thirty years, NDA has operated out of its Tribeca loft to provide an increasing number of opportunities to an artistic community starved of resources. Through its efforts, NDA has supported countless artists in various stages of their careers and is constantly expanding its offerings in response to the current artistic climate.

In 2006, Bernard was awarded the BAX 10 Award, for her invaluable service to artists in the founding and development of the Performance Mix Festival.

Selected Works
  • Showgirls (2018)
  • Green, Performance (2017), Film (2018)
  • Ouette (2012)
  • Surfing The Shadow (2007)
  • Removed Exposure (2004)
  • CAUTION: The Madonna Songs (2001)
  • Blue, Star, Dying for Lace, Vinyl (1999)
  • It Could Have Been Different (1997)
  • Footsteps on the Dancefloor (1996)
  • Buono Duo (1988)

References
  1. Anderson, Jack (1988-02-04). "Dance: Karen Bernard". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2017-02-08.
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