karen Krolak

I am a free range collaborator and an interdisciplinary artist based in Boston, MA. The one that people call in when they are not sure if they should chicken out of an unusual idea. I’m also a mentor at large willing to guide folks towards the uniqueness of their own creative voice. People usually recognize me by my laugh and find me in large crowds or cavernous costume closets by my barking cough. Don’t be surprised if there is something stuck in the unruly punch line of my hair.

“It made no difference to her that a thing had never been done before, or that there was no obvious language for expressing something.  I would eventually come to understand that this striking combination of curiosity and flexibility was at the heart of who she is.  karen is a creator of possibilities, a synthesizer of ideas, a translator of the seemingly untranslatable (palindromes, in my case).”

Barry Duncan, Master Palindromist

Please know that I am voraciously curious and constantly seek out opportunities to exchange information and gather new skills. I earned my MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts at Sierra Nevada College and received my BA in Linguistics at Northwestern University but that does not account fully for the eclectic range of skills and stories I bring to every collaboration, class, and creative adventure. Over the last few decades, I have been hired as:

• a magical fighting chicken,
• a door knocker for Steve Carell,
• a technical writer for a computer science Phd thesis,
• a choreographer for a minor motion picture that starred John Corbett in a chicken suit (Yes, chickens are a theme in my oeuvre.),
• a costume designer for the world premiere of a play about Bronies and fascism,
• the first official artist in residence at the Newton Cemetery,
• a dramaturg for a dance theater piece,
• a stylist for several guinea pigs (and am currently in negotiations with a half dozen chickens (Seriously. The chickens came to me. And yes, this is perhaps more than a theme in my work.)),
• lead wood pickler for a dance film,
• co-choreographer for a minor motion picture about grief and ghostly children dressed as woodland animals (Ha, no chickens this time.)
• a tea-monger for the Village Tea Shoppe (employee of the month over 36 times!),
• and a professional shoe blogger.

Whether you want a compassionate outside eye, an idiosyncratic collaborator, or just the answers to the questions that occurred when you read that list of jobs, please email me kskrolak [at] gmail [dot] com.

Or use the form below…

Mentoring should help artists to explore their creative problems, clarify intentions, and overcome obstacles rather than impose aesthetic ideas or pass judgement. For over twenty years, I developed the modern dance program at Impulse Dance Center and trained hundreds of people from age 7 to adults. As an artist with an invisible disability, I have adapted programs for students and mentees with a variety of disabilities. I have stayed up all night to work with people at Luminarium’s 24 Hour Choreofest. When COVID shut down studios, I offered to mentor aMaSSiT choreographers virtually so that they could embrace new ways of building and presenting. And thanks to Monkeyhouse’s mentoring programs, I have decades of experience helping people hone their artistic voices.

Let’s see up a time to talk to see if I could be a good fit for your creative practice.