Karen Lynell Arceneaux

(Gonzales, Louisiana), received her B.F.A. in Choreographic design from the University of Louisiana-Lafayette (ULL). Arceneaux has trained at the American Dance Festival in North Carolina, The Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance and The Ailey School in New York. During her studies, she had the opportunity to work with such noted dance professionals as Odette Blum, Ethel Butler, Bettie Jones, Donald McKayle, Clay Taliaferro, Ana Marie Forsythe, Kelvin Rotardier, David Dorfman, Denise Jefferson, Milton Myers, Lynn Glauber, Kazuko Hirabayashi, Wendy Amos Steve Rooks, Peter London, Freddie Moore, Earl Mosley, Beth Goheen, Matthew Rushing and Lenwood Sloan.

After graduating from The Ailey School, Arceneaux worked as the administrative assistant to the School Director and B.F.A. Program Co-Director. She later served as the school administrator from 1999-2004. She has choreographed for The Ailey School’s Student Performance Group, Student Showcase Group, The Ailey/Fordham B.F.A. Program in Dance, Ailey’s Professional Performing Arts School program and ULL. Arceneaux has also choreographed for the play “Faustus/Faustus”, directed by Matthew Maguire, working with dancers in the Ailey/Fordham B.F.A. Program and actors in Fordham University’s Theatre Program. She has been a featured choreographer and dancer for Coming Together dance series directed by EVon Arts, Ltd., and has been a member of Footprints Dance Company and Earl Mosley’s Diversity of Dance Series. She has also served as a guest teacher and artist-in-residence for Earl Mosley’s Institute of the Arts in Connecticut. Since 1999, she has also choreographed for the annual Christmas concert at Saint Paul’s Church in New York, working with sophomores in the Ailey/Fordham B.F.A. Program in Dance.

Arceneaux is an adjudicator for Long Island University’s (C.W. Post campus) annual dance conference and a guest choreographer for its annual spring showcase. She teaches extensively in Eastern Long Island working with elementary to high school students of the Bridgehampton School, East Hampton Town Senior/Youth Center, Amagansett School, the Children’s Museum of the East End and Guild Hall. Currently, she is the founder and director of Genesis Dance Foundation for the Arts, Inc., Genesis Dance Company, L.L.C., and Genesis Community Arts Program, all established in 2001. As the director of Genesis Dance Company, her work has been presented at the NuDanceNow Festival at The Riverside Theater, the International Dance Festival at The Duke at 42^nd Street, The Ailey Citigroup Theater and The Dicapo Theater, “Afternoons” at LIU at the Kumble Theater, the MOJA Arts Festival at the Gaillard Auditorium in South Carolina and CT Meets NY Dance Fest at The Crystal Theater in Connecticut and Dance New Amsterdam in New York. She holds a Master of Arts Degree in Organizational Management from the University of Phoenix, is an adjunct professor at Nassau Community College, and an instructor for The Ailey School and The Ailey Extension program and a teaching artist for Alvin Ailey’s Arts-in-Education Program and Opus Arts-in-Education Program.