Pearlman, Karen (1960 - )

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Karen Pearlman was born in St Louis, Missouri, in 1960. She received her early dance training at Washington University, St Louis, and later completed a bachelor of fine arts with honours in dance from the Tisch School of the Arts, New York University, in 1981. Pearlman also studied with Sara Rudner and other members of the Twyla Tharp company in New York. She also worked with ballet teachers Maggie Black and Zvi Gotheiner, and yoga instructors Sharon Gannon and David Life.

Pearlman was a founding member of Timothy Buckley and the Company in 1983, and stayed with the company as it became Timothy Buckley and the Twisters and then Timothy Buckley and the Troublemakers. During her time with Timothy Buckley’s companies Pearlman danced in premieres at Dance Theatre Workshop, the Kitchen, Jacob's Pillow, the Spoleto Festival, and the London Dance Umbrella. She joined the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company in 1985, and danced with them in a number of major roles, as well as creating the role of How To Walk an Elephant for the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Next Wave Festival.

Pearlman and Richard James Allen began their working partnership as the New York-based production company That Was Fast in 1985, creating dance, poetry, film and video works that toured throughout the U.S.A., England, Holland, and Australia. That Was Fast was suspended in 1995 when, following the departure of Jenny Kinder, Pearlman and Allen became co-artistic directors of TasDance, a position they held from 1995 to 1996.

In 1997, Pearlman and Allen co-founded Physical TV, a film and television production company specialising in realising dance and physical theatre for the screen. In 2001 Pearlman and Allen created No Surrender, a Physical TV Company production in association with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. It won Best Experimental Film at the 2002 ATOM Awards. The production features Indigenous dancer Bernadette Walong and has music composed by Michael Yezerski for the Sydney-based percussion ensemble, Synergy.

In 2001 Pearlman completed a masters in editing from the Australian Film, Television and Radio School (AFTRS), and attained a masters in production in 2002 from the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS). She is currently working on a doctorate at UTS, due to be completed in 2005. Since 2001 she has worked as an editor, post-production supervisor, sound designer, director, writer, performer, choreographer, and digital designer in a range of dance films.

See also: Allen, Richard James ; TasDance

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Research Materials

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Other resources

Find more about Pearlman, Karen in:

• Internet - Google
• Collection - OzLife
• Articles - New York Public Library Dance Collection
• Pictures - Picture Australia