KAREN GAWIN began her training at the Academy of Nevada Dance Theater in Las Vegas and continued on a full scholarship in the summer programs at Pacific Northwest Ballet School and San Francisco Ballet School. After finishing high school at the Las Vegas Academy of Performing Arts, she studied at the San Francisco Ballet school under Irina Jacobson and former Balanchine ballerina Gloria Govrin.  She performed with the San Francisco Ballet in the productions of Giselle and The Nutcracker, toured with them to London in 1999, and received an apprenticeship with the company.

She has danced professionally with the San Francisco Ballet, Nevada Dance Theater, Miami City Ballet and Ballet Arizona. Her repertoire includes Giselle, Coppelia, Paquita, Swan Lake, Mark Diamond's A Streetcan Named Desire, Paul Taylor's Piazzolla Caldera, and Balanchine's La Valse.  She joined Ballet Arizona in 2005 where she danced featured roles in Romeo and Juliet, La Sonnambula, Raymonda, Twyla Tharp's The Golden Section, and Balanchine's Apollo. She also performed in Ib Andersen's The Nutcracker, Play, and Mozaik, in Bournonville's Konservatoriet, and in Balanchine's Serenade, Divertimento # 15 and Stravinsky Violin Concerto. Among her favorite performances were dancing a pas de deux in Ib Andersen's Amoroso and dancing the role of Cupid in Don Quixote.

Karen is currently studying in the Master's of Counseling program at Arizona State University.