karen Krolak is a Boston based choreographer, performer, teacher, costume designer, and writer. Since 2000, she has been the Founder/Artistic Director of Monkeyhouse, which was voted Best Dance Company in Boston 2006, 2007 & 2010 by the Boston Phoenix.
As a young child she began taking ballet lessons and dreamed of being a Dallas Cowboys' cheerleader. She claims her fascination with arch melodrama is the direct result of her experiences on cheerleading squads for pee wee football in Nashville. When she was not "on the field" or "in the studio", she spent endless hours roaming the halls of Vanderbilt University, where her father was chairman of the Computer Science Department, listening to the conversations of the veritable pioneers of the information age.
While she studied ballet for years at the Atlanta Ballet, the Natick School of Ballet, and the Boston Ballet, she gave up her aspirations to dance professionally after a serious back injury at 13. Ironically, while pursuing her BA in Linguistics at Northwestern University, she met the two biggest influences on her dance career, Lynne Anne Blom and Timothy O'Slynne. Because the Dance Department at Northwestern was not yet a degree granting program, students were able to take as many dance classes as they wished in addition to their academic studies. By the time Karen graduated in '93, she had studied French, Russian, Croatian, and Old English but she was quickly getting work as a professional dancer and choreographer.
Since then her choreography has been featured in dance concerts, site-specific works, plays, musicals, performance art pieces, films and gallery installations including: every Monkeyhouse production, Boston Moves 2000, Dance Portland, the Choreographers Group, Mobius, Art Street, Actors' Shakespeare Project, Magellan Theater Company, Bailiwick Repertory Theater, the University of Illinois in Chicago, Theater Wit's award-winning production of W!, Baubo Performance Project, the Art & Healing Exhibit in Jackson Hole, and Mannafest in Minneapolis.
In March 2008 she participated in the Logomotion workshop with Simone Forti in Orvieto, Italy and performed at the Teatro Vascello in Rome. Later that year she was selected to be one of the 14 participants at the Jacob's Pillow Choreographers' Lab.
Karen also developed the Modern Dance curriculum at Impulse Dance Center in Natick, MA. Over the last 15 years, the program has blossomed from one class of 7 girls into 6 levels ranging from children to adults. Many of her former students have continued on to perform professionally. In 2005, she and Jason Ries were invited to present two workshops in Malpils, Latvia. Locally, she has collaborated with the Arlington Center for the Arts, Germaine Lawrence School, Dance Umbrella, and the Boston Arts Academy to create a variety of classes for teens.
In 2002, she and Amelia O'Dowd won Best Costume Design at the New York International Fringe Festival for Monkeyhouse's production of ASPIC. Although never formally trained in costume design Karen studied tailoring during all four years of high school and learned multiple fiber arts from her mother and grandmother. After college, she assisted Mara Blumenfeld on costumes for shows at the Steppenwolf Theater and Lookingglass Theater; and worked as a freelance stitcher for Northwestern University, Columbia College, Chicago Scenic, the Goodman Theater, and Marriott Lincolnshire Theater to support herself. Her unusual costume creations have been commissioned by Baubo Performance Project, Robin Lakes/ Rough Dance, and Baliwick Repertory's NOW THEN AGAIN…
Many of Karen's and Monkeyhouse's pieces include text that she has written and this Fall she was invited to create a performance text for San Francisco's Anne Bluethenthal & Dancers 25th Anniversary Season. She edits all of Monkeyhouse's publications and regularly contributes to the organization's blog and enews. In addition, she has been a guest writer for Dance Spirit Magazine's Website, Summer Stages Blog, the Natick Tab, and the Dover Sherborn Press. In January 2008, she became a professional blogger for Shoetube.tv. Karen is also a former Boston Dance Alliance Board member and a former member of the MetroWest Nonprofit Network Steering Committee.
As a young child she began taking ballet lessons and dreamed of being a Dallas Cowboys' cheerleader. She claims her fascination with arch melodrama is the direct result of her experiences on cheerleading squads for pee wee football in Nashville. When she was not "on the field" or "in the studio", she spent endless hours roaming the halls of Vanderbilt University, where her father was chairman of the Computer Science Department, listening to the conversations of the veritable pioneers of the information age.
While she studied ballet for years at the Atlanta Ballet, the Natick School of Ballet, and the Boston Ballet, she gave up her aspirations to dance professionally after a serious back injury at 13. Ironically, while pursuing her BA in Linguistics at Northwestern University, she met the two biggest influences on her dance career, Lynne Anne Blom and Timothy O'Slynne. Because the Dance Department at Northwestern was not yet a degree granting program, students were able to take as many dance classes as they wished in addition to their academic studies. By the time Karen graduated in '93, she had studied French, Russian, Croatian, and Old English but she was quickly getting work as a professional dancer and choreographer.
Since then her choreography has been featured in dance concerts, site-specific works, plays, musicals, performance art pieces, films and gallery installations including: every Monkeyhouse production, Boston Moves 2000, Dance Portland, the Choreographers Group, Mobius, Art Street, Actors' Shakespeare Project, Magellan Theater Company, Bailiwick Repertory Theater, the University of Illinois in Chicago, Theater Wit's award-winning production of W!, Baubo Performance Project, the Art & Healing Exhibit in Jackson Hole, and Mannafest in Minneapolis.
In March 2008 she participated in the Logomotion workshop with Simone Forti in Orvieto, Italy and performed at the Teatro Vascello in Rome. Later that year she was selected to be one of the 14 participants at the Jacob's Pillow Choreographers' Lab.
Karen also developed the Modern Dance curriculum at Impulse Dance Center in Natick, MA. Over the last 15 years, the program has blossomed from one class of 7 girls into 6 levels ranging from children to adults. Many of her former students have continued on to perform professionally. In 2005, she and Jason Ries were invited to present two workshops in Malpils, Latvia. Locally, she has collaborated with the Arlington Center for the Arts, Germaine Lawrence School, Dance Umbrella, and the Boston Arts Academy to create a variety of classes for teens.
In 2002, she and Amelia O'Dowd won Best Costume Design at the New York International Fringe Festival for Monkeyhouse's production of ASPIC. Although never formally trained in costume design Karen studied tailoring during all four years of high school and learned multiple fiber arts from her mother and grandmother. After college, she assisted Mara Blumenfeld on costumes for shows at the Steppenwolf Theater and Lookingglass Theater; and worked as a freelance stitcher for Northwestern University, Columbia College, Chicago Scenic, the Goodman Theater, and Marriott Lincolnshire Theater to support herself. Her unusual costume creations have been commissioned by Baubo Performance Project, Robin Lakes/ Rough Dance, and Baliwick Repertory's NOW THEN AGAIN…
Many of Karen's and Monkeyhouse's pieces include text that she has written and this Fall she was invited to create a performance text for San Francisco's Anne Bluethenthal & Dancers 25th Anniversary Season. She edits all of Monkeyhouse's publications and regularly contributes to the organization's blog and enews. In addition, she has been a guest writer for Dance Spirit Magazine's Website, Summer Stages Blog, the Natick Tab, and the Dover Sherborn Press. In January 2008, she became a professional blogger for Shoetube.tv. Karen is also a former Boston Dance Alliance Board member and a former member of the MetroWest Nonprofit Network Steering Committee.
Photo by Stephanie Sune
