Karen Peterson B.F.A. '76

Karen Peterson Corash, is a graduate of the Boston Conservatory and has received many awards from Miami Dade Department of Cultural Affairs and the Florida Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs for her physically integrated choreography. She has created over twenty-five physically integrated, full staged works that have been presented at showcases and festivals in New York City, Atlanta, Cleveland, Brazil, Italy, Scotland, Bosnia, Serbia, Guatemala, Montenegro and Ireland. 

She completed additional dance training with the physically integrated dance companies Axis Dance in Oakland, California and Candoco Dance in London, UK.

Karen received a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011 from the New World School of the Arts and also a Coldwell Bankers Cares Award, Citizens Interested in the Arts Award, Cultural Exchange Award from APAP, an American Red Cross-Cultural Award, an Autism Speaks Award, and was named one of the “Queen of the Arts” by the Miami Herald 2014. She has influenced the dance and disability communities in South Florida for 30 years with her dedicated activities of education, creation and presentation of inclusive dance. She received the 2019 Boston Conservatory at Berklee Alumni Entrepreneurial Award for the presentation of  “Warmamas” at the Judson Memorial Church, NYC in 2017 and is a  Miami-Dade County, Dance Miami Choreographer's Program Winner for 2017 and 2019. KPD has won support from the John and James L. Knight Foundation, The Miami Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts in 2017 - 2022 for The (1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th) Forward Motion Dance Festival and Conference of Physically Integrated Dance.  Under Karen’s leadership, KPD was named "Miami's Best Dance Company for 2019"  by the Miami New Times. 

Karen was a Guest Speaker at the Dance/USA Conference in 2017 and is a current member of the Dance USA deaf/disability affinity group.  

Karen Corash is a recent recipient for The Boston Conservatory at Berklee School of Music Alumni Achievement Awards for her “dedicated work in the field and contributions to society” and will receive her award in Boston, March 2022.