Karen Potter, a native of Texas, moved to New York in 1975 where she began her 14 year association with the Erick Hawkins Dance Company as a dancer and teacher. During her tenure, she was featured in Mr. Hawkins' renowned works "Classic Kite Tails", and "Meditations on Orpheus" and was privileged to assist Mr. Hawkins in costume design and construction. As a guest artist, she has performed and taught in Europe and throughout the United States at many festivals including the Berner Tanztage in Bern, Switzerland, Yapi Kredi in Istanbul, Turkey, Piccolo Spoleto Festival, American College Dance Festivals and the International Children's Festival at Wolftrap for the Performing Arts. In 1993, Ms. Potter was selected as an Arts Specialist for the USIA and was privileged to be the first American Modern Dancer to teach for the Ankara Devlet Opera ve Balesi Modern Dans Toplulugu of Turkey. Her reputation as a teacher and performer has earned her return engagements to Brazil, France, Italy, Switzerland and Turkey as well as to many universities and regional conferences such as the American Association of Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance. She has also enjoyed the honor of performing in works by such renowned choreographers as Martha Graham, Lucinda Childs, Pascal Rioult, James Clouser, Martita Goshen, Kelly Holt, Nancy Meehan and Albert Reid in such prestigious theaters as the historic Strand Opera House in Louisiana, the Joyce Theater in New York and the Ankara State Opera House in Turkey. Her choreography has been presented in Turkey, Italy and Switzerland, at the Strand Theater with the Shreveport Symphony in Louisiana, at Wolftrap in Virginia, the Piccolo Spoleto Festival in South Carolina, on the World Dance Alliance and Congress on Research in Dance Showcase in Taipei, Taiwan at the Taiwan National University for the Arts and at various venues and universities throughout the United States. In New York, she enjoyed a ten year affiliation as a noted teacher with the Limon Institute, DanceSpace and the 92nd Street Y. Having served as the Director of the Dance Program from 1999 to 2008, she is also an Associate Professor at Case Western Reserve University, she founded and co-directs the Dancer Wellness Program, teaches technique, choreography and pedagogy, and advises and mentors graduate and undergraduate students. She was selected as a Glennan Fellow and recently nominated for the prestigious Jackson Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Mentoring. Along with her colleagues in the Dance Program, she received an Honorable Mention Award from Northern Ohio Live for both "Kinetic Shadows" in which she served as an Assistant to the choreographer and for "Primitive Mysteries" in which she danced the lead role. She choreographs and serves as regisseur annually for the Mather Dance Ensemble, designs and constructs costumes for the Dance Program's various productions and serves as the advisor for numerous undergraduate dance clubs. Maintaining an active association with various professional organizations, she served as the chair of the Education Committee of the International Association for Dance Medicine and Science from 2005-07. She has presented at the IADMS conferences in New York, London, San Francisco and Stockholm and also presented at the first two International Conferences on New Directions in the Humanities in Rhodes, Greece and Prato, Italy. Potter has also been an Assistant Professor of Dance at Long Island University in New York where she co-founded the Dance Wellness Program, and at Northwestern State University in Louisiana. Other academic appointments were at Southwest Texas State University, SUNY Cortland and Cornell University through the Cooperative Extension Program. She has served on the board of OhioDance and UnionStreet Dance in New York and was a founding member of Dance Umbrella in Austin, Texas. She attends annual conferences of the National Association of Schools of Dance.