KAREN PALAFOX

ABOUT ME
I am a movement researcher, dedicated to Somatic Education, Contact Improvisation, and Evolutionary Aquatic Movement. I have participated in and organized dance, improvisation, and somatic gatherings in Mexico, Brazil, Germany, Argentina, New Zealand, the United States, Colombia, and Ecuador.

In truth, I have literally danced my entire life… but 14 years ago I began formal studies to deepen into movement pedagogies and somatic practices. In 2011, I completed a Bachelor’s degree in Dance at UDLAP, and soon after I began my training through ISMETA in Somatic Movement Education and Therapy with the Body Mind Movement® school in Mexico and Brazil starting in 2015. In 2016, I had the opportunity to participate in the immersive Improvisation and Somatic program P.O.R.C.H at Ponderosa in Germany. These three stages have greatly nourished my path, allowing me to explore somatic approaches such as BMC®, BMM®, Skinner Releasing©, Axis Syllabus©, Feldenkrais©, and the Alexander Technique, to name the most relevant and impactful in my career.

Since 2017, I began to reframe everything I had learned, developing material to research, share, and recognize Human Developmental Patterns from an aquatic perspective, mainly through group work. For this reason, I trained as a Certified Facilitator in Janzu Aquatic Therapy (Levels I and II) at Casa de las Artes Acuáticas México and am currently in training with the AquaSoma® school. At present, I am also enrolled in the Somatic Experiencing® Practitioner program, Peter Levine’s school focused on trauma and the nervous system.

Recently, I created Fuente Somares, a platform for education and gatherings dedicated to deepening somatic practices and CI on land and in water. I was part of the co-direction of Performática: Contemporary Dance and Movement Arts Festival (founded by Ray Schwartz), co-creator of Encuerpar: Somatic Movement Festival, and co-producer of the Contact and Flow festival in multiple editions.

Throughout my career, I have collaborated on multiple stage and audiovisual projects. Highlights include my participation with Performática, Arcdanz, and above all with the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, where I was part of the video documentation team at the historic Ted Shawn Theater, working with international companies such as Mark Morris Dance Group, Dance Theatre of Harlem, Dorrance Dance, The Hong Kong Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Companhia Urbana de Dança, LeeSaar The Company, among others, as well as collaborating in special productions with dancers from the New York City Ballet.

Over the years, my journey has led me to embrace a polyglot lifestyle; communicating and teaching in French, English, Portuguese, and Spanish.

ABOUT MY WORK
At the heart of my work lies a deep interest in sharing the wisdom of human movement development with the intention of awakening an amphibious understanding of our evolution. My practice is nourished by the work of Body Mind Movement/Centering® and the study of the Basic Neurological Patterns (BNP), developed by Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen and Mark Taylor. I explore both on land and in water how these movement roots reveal pathways of consciousness, relationship, and transformation.

IN THE WATER
Since 2017, I have developed my own research on the application of the BNP in water, expanding what I first discovered on land into a fertile field of self-knowledge and awareness of the body’s systems. My approach is linked to embodying our amphibious origin, recognizing that the first patterns—also called Oceanic Patterns for their intrauterine development—are primitive expressions of movement and consciousness that emerge from conception through the earliest embryonic stages. I understand each pattern as an organic state of movement, a living manifestation of cellular, energetic, and relational processes that shape our original somatic experience.

ON LAND
On land, my research is strengthened through the practice of Contact Improvisation, where I explore states of presence and attune to the nuances of sensation, perception, and proprioception. For me, this practice is a profound relational tool that opens pathways to understand how our bodies communicate, adapt, regulate, and create meaning in relation with others. In this way, Contact Improvisation becomes a bridge to expand my somatic research, discovering new ways of translating sensory information into efficient motor impulses, fostering fluid, creative, and joyful movement.

AMPHIBIOUS AND SOMATIC CONSCIOUSNESS
My focus is to cultivate an embodied understanding of the mind-body connection in movement, inviting each person to immerse themselves in the richness of their somatic landscapes as membranes of lived experience. In this way, I remember that each movement is revealed as a manifestation of embodied consciousness, both in terrestrial and aquatic environments.