Karen Sherman is a maker, one who values the choreography of labor and the labor of dance. She creates movement; she performs. She crafts lighting, objects and sound. She builds sets and writes texts.Her vital work grounds dance in intellectual thought – precious in a world that thinks dance is only about bodies and that bodies do not think. Whether she’s exploring murder, alienation, oppression, failure or the beauty and brutality of backstage culture, Sherman combines seeming opposites —violence/compassion, isolation/comfort, loss/pleasure — and stages them as coexistent realities, with sorrow, humor, and reverence.

photo by Aaron Rosenblum