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Karen Love

Adjunct, Theatre and Dance

Email:
lovek@montclair.edu
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Ms. Love earned her MFA from New York University Tisch School of the Arts and her B.F.A. from Montclair State University. Love is the Founder/Artistic Director of Umoja and Usaama Dance Company. Umoja's 30th Anniversary was celebrated in June 2023 at Montclair State University. In 2006, Love created Wofabe African Dance & Drum Festival, the only African dance & drum festival in the state of New Jersey.

Presently, Love is the director of the dance program at Hillside High School and director of the after school dance program for the Hillside Public Schools district. She is the owner of Umoja Dance Studio located in Vaux Hall, NJ which offers dance, drum and capoeira classes for children and adults.
Love is Vice President of DanceNJ, NJPAC Dance Advisory Co-chair, and a certified yoga and pilates teacher. She is a former faculty member in the Junior Division at The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre and former Visiting Artist in Residence at Kent State University.

Love was recognized in Who’s Who Among American Teachers 2004 and 2005, honored as one of the "50 Women You Should Know in Montclair, NJ" and received the “Women of Distinction,” award from the YWCA of Essex and West Hudson. Dance has afforded Love the opportunity to travel to Senegal, Guinea, The Gambia, Australia, New Zealand, Bermuda, Mexico, Barbados, Morocco, Hawaii, Jamaica, Canary Islands, Guatemala, Cuba, and Brazil. Her choreography has been commissioned and presented at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, DTW Freshtracks, Aaron Davis Hall, The Yard, Symphony Space, Bates Dance Festival, Duke University, Northern Illinois University, MSU, NYU, Montclair High School, and Newark Arts High School.

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