Karen Clemente, Dance Faculty

Karen earned both Master’s and Doctoral degrees in Dance Education from Temple University. Karen founded the dance program at Eastern University, where she served as director for twenty-two years. Karen is a Professor of Dance and the Director of the Dance Program at Ursinus College. Dr. Clemente has worked with the Pennsylvania State Department of Education in the development of dance curriculum guidelines and academic standards for arts education. Currently, she is a board member of the Pennsylvania Dance Education Organization, serving on the Social Justice Committee. Her research interests include K-post secondary dance education; kinesthetic learning across the curriculum; dance improvisation and autobiography; vintage jazz dance; dance and spirituality; and most recently, 1930’s-40’s era jazz and tap dance artists of the Paramount Theater in New York City. She was the 2009 Outstanding Dance Educator for 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. Karen Clemente and Kristen Bissinger co-directed Feet First from 1990-2018. At Feet First, Karen teaches Tap and Modern. Karen has been teaching at Feet First since 1985.