Karen Shanley

Faculty

Karen’s passion for dance/movement has kept her happily in the dance scene since she was a little girl. She studied ballet with Evelyn LeMone, Wilson Morelli, Yasuki Sasa, Margaret Craske, Antony Tudor, El Gabriel and Larry Rosenberg and modern with Betty Jones, Viola Farber, Jeff Slayton. She earned a BA in dance from UCLA, an MA from Ohio State University where her focus was modern and dance history.

As a teen she was a soloist with Morelli Ballet (Los Angeles) and performed in famed ballerina Alicia Alonso’s production of Coppelia. She was a featured dancer with Hawaii Dance Theatre, and later performed in the companies of modern dance pioneers Jean Erdman and Charles Weidman in NYC. Karen also performed with Ballet Hysell (New Orleans Ballet), Anaheim Ballet, Jeff Slayton and Dancers and Gloria Newman Dance Theatre as well as a free-lance performer.
Karen has taught various levels of ballet and modern at Univ. of Nebraska (Omaha), University of Hawaii, Brooklyn College, New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, Cal State University Long Beach, American Dance, San Luis Obispo, as well as summer dance intensives in Sun Valley, ID and Anaheim Ballet, CA.

Before moving to Colorado in 2007, Karen was a professor at Orange Coast College, Costa Mesa, CA where for 24 years she taught ballet, modern, and was Dance Department Chair for 17 years. Karen is a certified Pilates and GYROTONIC® instructor and has her own studio Jasper Peak Pilates in Lafayette.