Karen Clemente

Karen Clemente is a Professor of Dance and the Dance Program Director at Ursinus College. She previously founded and then directed the Eastern University Dance Program for twenty-two years. Additionally, she is on the teaching staff at the Feet First Dance Center in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, where she was the co-director for over thirty years. Dr. Clemente has worked with the Pennsylvania State Department of Education in the development of dance curriculum guidelines and academic standards for arts education. She currently serves as the Board Secretary and Social Justice Committee Co-Chair of the Pennsylvania Dance Education Organization. Her research interests include: kinesthetic learning across the curriculum; dance improvisation and autobiography; authentic jazz dance; dance and spirituality; and most recently, 1920’s-40’s era jazz and tap dance artists. She has both a Master’s and a Doctoral degree in Dance Education from Temple University. She was the 2009 Outstanding Dance Educator in Higher Education awarded by the National Dance Education Organization and a 2010 recipient of the Creative Hands and Voices Award by the Neighborhood Interfaith Movement in Philadelphia.