Karen is a Birmingham-born dancer, maker, researcher, educator and producer. She started tap dancing at the age of 4 and it has been in her life ever since.

She worked as a freelance dance artist and teacher in Manchester, London and now Birmingham. Her work includes projects that were supported by Arts Council England, including SoundMoves with Jess Murray, and involves collaborating with other art forms, such as drawing, lighting design and music. This work has shown at venues such as Contact Theatre, Manchester, FACT Liverpool and Vivid Projects, Birmingham. She jointly ran Manchester Rhythm Tap Project and organised rhythm tap workshops. She is co-founder of Manchester Dance Consortium and Associate Director of Birmingham Dance Network and on a Board member for Vanhulle Dance Theatre and Wired Aerial Dance Theatre.

Her recent research projects investigate artists engagement with policy making and decolonisation of cultural dance practices.

Currently, she is Assistant Professor for the Centre for Dance Research at Coventry University and her research explores choreographic practices, dance education and artist development.