Biography
Kara Wilkes is an interdisciplinary choreographer, educator, dancer, visual artist, and filmmaker. Her expertise in classical and contemporary ballet is extensive and supported by her twenty-year professional dance career. She has performed works by Alonzo King, Alvin Ailey, Twyla Tharp, Nacho Duato, Jacqulyn Buglisi, Dwight Rhoden, George Balanchine, Darrell Grand Moultrie and others. In 2019, she earned her MFA in Dance from Hollins University where she began her choreographic research surrounding inherited trauma, addiction, and healing. Her creative work also focuses heavily on the Digital Age’s impacts on society and our planet. Most recently, she choreographed works for Traverse City Dance Project, the USC Glorya Kaufman School of Dance, Santa Clara University, and Texas Christian University.
During Kara’s artist residency at Surel’s Place she will continue choreographing a piece she began in 2022 entitled Sycamore. Its concepts stem from her MFA in Dance research which examined embodied generational trauma and healing techniques that employ dance. She began working on Sycamore three years ago during a choreography fellowship through New York University. She was also in Boise in 2025 choreographing a new work for Ballet Idaho’s Training Program.