Karen Jamieson


Karen Jamieson is a Canadian dancer, choreographer, and dance teacher in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Career

In the early 1970s Jamieson moved to New York and performed with dancers Merce Cunningham, Martha Graham, and Alwin Nikolais, and with choreographers Yvonne Rainer and Phyllis Lamhut. During her time in New York Jamieson studied classical modern dance techniques and began to develop her own choreography.
Returning to Vancouver in 1974, Jamieson began teaching at Simon Fraser University. In 1975 she co-founded the experimental movement collective Terminal City Dance, where her reputation as a choreographer and dancer continued to grow. In 1980 she founded the Karen Jamieson Dance Company which features her choreography. Since then, Jamieson has focused extensively on exploring dance as mythic thinking, and to creating a cross-cultural dialogue with First Nations artists.
Jamieson began to work with residents of the Downtown Eastside in 2006, establishing a mentorship program for young dancers and choreographers.
In 2016, she was recognized by the Isadora Award, "for her contribution to the overall development of dance in British Columbia and Canada,"
As of 2017, she has created almost 100 dance works.

Awards and honours