Karen Cleighton

A closeup of Karen Cleighton sitting in a home with a white dining table and chairs in the background
Faculty

Theater - Musical Theater (BFA)

Karen Cleighton is an adjunct professor of Musical Theater at UArts. 

Biography

Karen Cleighton earned a BFA in Dance Education from UArts, where she is on the Musical Theater faculty. She also taught jazz and tap in Temple University’s Musical Theater program. Cleighton has her New Jersey teaching certification in dance and theater and is currently teaching in the dance and musical theater programs at Chartertech High School for the Performing Arts, Somers Point, New Jersey.

She has dedicated her life to teaching and sharing her love of the arts to as many people as she can in as many different ways as she can: through universities, high schools, private dance studios, teaching professional choreography, grade school and high school choreography, and choreography at local theaters.

In her “spare time,” you can find Cleighton taking class; attending tap jams; and working for various entertainment companies, providing dancers, choreographing, producing shows, and DJing.

Experience

Teaching

  • University of the Arts, Philadelphia 

    • Tap and jazz

    • Movement for the Actor 

    • Musical Theater Repertoire

  • Temple University, Philadelphia

    • Tap and jazz

  • The Rock School

    • Tap and Jazz

  • Metropolitan Ballet Academy, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania

    • Jazz

Performing

  • “Too Darn Hot” tap dancer

  • LaVaughn Robinson Tribute tap dancer

  • Tapping on the Streets tap dancer and DJ

  • Jazzworks jazz dancer

Choreography

  • University of the Arts, Philadelphia

  • DeSales University, Center Valley, Pennsylvania

  • Media Theatre, Pennsylvania

  • East Lynne Theatre Company, Cape May, New Jersey

  • Gateway Theatre, Somers Point, New Jersey

  • Margate Players, New Jersey

Awards & Accolades

  • Barrymore Award–nominated choreographer

  • Broadway World–nominated choreographer

 

Four pairs of dance shoes in the individual colors of teal and white and black and black and lavender and golda semicircle

 

“The one thing that can solve most of our problems is dancing.” – James Brown