Karen Shanley has been on the dance faculty at Orange Coast College for 23 years, where for the past fifteen she has been Dance Chair.  Ms. Shanley has been nominated on four occasions for the "OCC Faculty Member of the Year" and twice for a prestigious "Lester Horton Award." In Spring 1998 she was presented "Dance Instructor of the Year" for the California Community Colleges awarded by SCOPE.  In January, 1998 she organized and directed the American College Dance Festival, Southwest Regional Festival at Orange Coast College, with 34 colleges and universities and over 350 students in attendance. She has been selected as the Regional Representative from the Southwest Region to the American College Dance Festival Association board.

Ms. Shanley began her early ballet training with Evelyn Le Mone in Pasadena, CA; she continued her training with some of the most renowned names in dance including Wilson Morelli, Margaret Craske, Antony Tudor, Lawrence Rosenberg, Betty Jones, Dan Wagoner, Viola Farber, Jeff Slayton and Gloria Newman.  She performed with the New Orleans Ballet, Hawaii Dance Theatre, in New York City with Charles Weidman and Jean Erdman and in California with Jeff Slayton and Dancers and the Gloria Newman Dance Theater.  Ms. Shanley has a B.A. degree from UCLA and a M.A. degree from Ohio State University.  She has taught at the University of Nebraska, Omaha, University of Hawaii, Brooklyn College, New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts, California State University Long Beach and for numerous summer dance workshops throughout the United States.  She is trained in the Pilates method and will be a certified teacher of the "Gyrotonics Expansion System" in August 1999. As a dancer, choreographer, teacher, and student of the "moving body," Ms. Shanley realizes the importance of correct body usage; her classes emphasize techniques and understanding which support longevity in the dancer's career.

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