WholeMovement Continuing Education Workshop in Space Harmony

Karen has a Master’s degree in Dance from University of Oregon and is certified in movement analysis through the Laban/Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies (LIMS). Studd is also a Registered Somatic Movement Therapist and Educator through ISMETA (International Somatic Movement Education and Therapy Association). Studd is a founding member of WholeMovement, a group of movement analysts working together to increase the visibility of the Laban/Bartenieff Movement System (LBMS) worldwide. She also serves as a LIMS and Emove Program Coordinator and core faculty member and has taught LBMS in the US, Canada, Europe, Mexico, Israel and in China. In the USA she has taught for the University of Oregon, the University of Wisconsin, George Washington University, The University of Maryland and George Mason University in its School of Dance, where she was a tenured faculty for over twenty years.

As a teacher of LBMS, she is focused on both personal and professional development through movement awareness training. Her primary interest is in promoting the understanding of the significance and importance of human movement across all disciplines. Studd is a co-author of EveryBody is a Body, a text on the phenomenon of human movement now in its second edition.

Cat is a movement educator, dance artist, Certified Movement Analyst (CMA), Registered Somatic Movement Educator (RSME), and a master teacher of the Laban/Bartenieff Movement System (LBMS). Cat has taught and co-coordinated Movement Analysis Certification Programs in the US, Europe, Mexico and China. Cat is also a collaborator and consultant for the Robotics, Automation and Dance (RAD) Lab under the direction of Dr. Amy LaViers where she works with roboticists on embodied movement training and analysis to support the development of expressive robotic systems. She is currently co-authoring a text under contract with MIT Press with Dr. LaViers on “Making Meaning with Machines”.

After graduating Phi Beta Kappa from Wesleyan University with honors in dance and psychology, she was the artistic director of Offspring Dance Company in New York City and the founder and head of the dance program at Drew University in Madison, NJ. While executive director of Piedmont Council of the Arts in Charlottesville, Cat continued to teach, choreograph and perform throughout Central Virginia and internationally. She was assistant professor of dance at Piedmont Virginia Community College (PVCC), and an integral part of the development and implementation of the associate’s degree in dance, the only one of its kind in the Virginia Community College System.

Currently, Cat teaches group classes and individual sessions in the Charlottesville VA area designed to foster self-expression, body connectivity and transformation through movement.