A Milwaukee native, Kara Wilkes is an educator, choreographer, dancer, visual artist, and filmmaker. Her expertise in classical and contemporary ballet is extensive and supported by her twenty-year career performing with Milwaukee Ballet Company, Ballet Victor Ullate, Charlotte Ballet and Alonzo King LINES Ballet. Kara has danced leading roles in works by Alonzo King, Alvin Ailey, Twyla Tharp, Nacho Duato, Jacqulyn Buglisi, Dwight Rhoden, George Balanchine, Darrell Grand Moultrie, and others. She has been named one of “25 to Watch” by Dance Magazine and one of “12 Standout Performances of 2015” by Pointe magazine; in 2016, she performed in the TEDWomen Conference in San Francisco. Kara has also served as Ballet Master for LINES and continues to teach workshops and répertoire for the organization. She has taught all levels of dance, including master classes for Duke University, University of Iowa, UC Santa Barbara, University of Georgia, and abroad in Dublin, Ireland. In 2019, Kara earned her MFA in Dance from Hollins University and has since been on faculty at Florida State University, Wake Forest University, Mills College, and Santa Clara University.

Kara is currently a Toulmin Choreography Fellow through NYU’s Center for Ballet and the Arts and National Sawdust. Most recently, she choreographed works for FSU, Traverse City Dance Project (New Voices Choreography Fellow), Texas Christian University, and the USC Glorya Kaufman School of Dance. Kara’s choreographic research investigates inherited trauma, addiction, and healing; it also focuses heavily on the Digital Age’s impacts on society and our planet…she embraces collaboration and experimentation. Kara is a movie enthusiast whose creations are often cinematic, offering non-linear narratives; viewers are exposed to various artistic mediums and theatrical elements, such as props, facial expressions, poetry/speech, singing, and gestures.