Kara Jhalak Miller is Professor of Dance in the Department of Theatre & Dance at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. She is an artist, choreographer, director, performer, screendance maker, embodied media artist, scholar, and yoga practitioner whose work bridges creative practice and scholarly research. Her research in dance studies and performance studies has been published nationally and internationally, and her choreographic work has been commissioned, presented, and exhibited throughout North and South America, Europe, Asia, and the Pacific. For more than three decades, Dr. Miller has created, performed, and collaborated across diverse performance and media contexts. Her choreographic and interdisciplinary works have been presented in theaters, galleries, museums, site-specific environments, interactive installations, film festivals, television broadcasts, feature films, and digital platforms. 

Dr. Miller earned a PhD in Performance Studies (Performance and Practice) from the University of California, Davis, an MFA in (Dance Choreography, Performance, and New Media) from the University of California, Irvine, and a BFA in Dance from The Juilliard School. Her areas of specialization include dance performance, choreography, contemporary dance practice, screendance, embodied media arts, improvisation, and performance-as-research. Additional research interests include somatic practices, yoga, dance and performance studies, gender studies, environmental humanities, and transnational approaches to movement and culture. Her doctoral dissertation, Reimagining Modern Dance as Transnational Phenomena Through the Lens of Yoga, examines the intersections of dance, embodiment, and global cultural exchange with research in the US, Hawaiʻi, and India. Her scholarship has appeared in journals including The Contemporary Pacific, Dance Magazine, The Global Performance Studies Journal, The Journal of Performance as Research, and Diálogos com a Arte. 

Extensively trained in classical, modern, postmodern, and contemporary dance forms, she began her professional career in New York City in the early 1990s, performing at Lincoln Center and a wide range of theaters, museums, galleries, and alternative performance venues. As a concert dance artist, she worked with and performed dances by choreographers including Carla DeSola, Jack Canady, Bill Evans, Laura Glenn, Kazuko Hirabayashi, Ted Hershey, Lila Higgins, Wendy Hilton, Indrani, Gloria Marina, Donald McKayle, David Parsons, Sandra Rivera, Vera Orlock, Mauricio Wainrot, Lila York, Joanne Tucker, and Hector Zaraspe. Her performance repertoire also included dancing in choreography by Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey, José Limón, Anna Sokolow, and Paul Taylor. From 1995 to 2002, Dr. Miller directed, performed with, and led the Omega Dance Company as an Artist-in-Residence at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, the world’s largest Gothic cathedral. During her residency, she directed dance productions presented in collaboration with the Paul Winter Consort that were broadcast live on ABC, NBC, CBS, and PBS.

Beginning in the 2000s, Dr. Miller expanded her artistic practice into the interdisciplinary intersections of dance, film, and embodied media technologies. Her television and film credits include choreography for Columbia Pictures and productions with E! Entertainment and DreamWorks. From 2006 to 2011, she co-founded and served as Co-Artistic Director of the bi-national San Diego/Tijuana DANCEonFILM Festival presented at San Diego State University, Paloma Movie House, and the Centro Cultural Tijuana, alongside Larry Asakawa and Minerva Tapia. In 2012, she brought the festival to Honolulu, presenting the inaugural DANCEonFILM Festival at the Earle Ernst Lab Theatre in collaboration with the Dance Films Association at Lincoln Center.

Before joining the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, Dr. Miller held various teaching appointments in dance (Modern, Ballet, Choreography, Dance for Camera) at the University of California, Irvine, California State University San Marcos, Palomar College, and MiraCosta College. As a visiting guest artist, she choreographed original live performance works at colleges, universities, theaters, and arts organizations. Highlights include the 92nd Street Y; American Dance Festival Association; Animal Fair at the Puck Building New York City; ArtsinTank Seoul; The Art Institute of Chicago; The Children’s Museum of Ohio; CalIT2; ChaShaMa Gallery NYC; Dance Theatre Workshop NYC; Fulton Theatre Michigan; Hawaiʻi Preparatory Academy; IÉSEG School Paris; Indiana University; Institute for the Arts Kansas; Jacobs Pillow; Korea National University of Arts; Long Beach Entertainment Center; Micah Danses Paris; MiraCosta College; New Brunswick University; The Old Globe Theatre San Diego; Princeton University; Riverside Theatre; Sacred Heart School; Savonia University Finland; Smith College; St. John’s University Minnesota; Stage 7 School of Dance; Summit Theatre New Jersey; The Place and ArtHouse London; The Juilliard School; Tampa Convention Center; The Thompson Center-C Temple Missouri; United Nations; the University of Colorado Boulder; the University of Hartford; the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo; the University of Nebraska Omaha; the University of Poitiers France; and the University of California, Irvine Claire Trevor School of the Arts.

Early Dance Media Installation collaborations began in 2005 with John Crawford and Lisa Naugle at the International Biennale of Contemporary Art in Prague, Czech Republic; Donald McKayle at the Los Angeles Edgemar Theatre and New York City’s Alvin Ailey Theatre; Loretta Livingston and Onur Topal at Sümerbank in Istanbul, Türkiye; Vidhya Warakagoda and the Channa Upuli Dance Company in Sri Lanka; and Allan Terriciano at the CalIT2 Arts Research Lab. Starting in 2012 she joined the ING International Group Collective, with performances at the Arko Theatre and Sangdong Theatre in South Korea and the Maison des Étudiants in France, collaborating with Moonea Choi, Claire Filmon, OK Sang Hoon, Samjin Kim, Loretta Livingston, Johanna Partio, and Kyang-yuk Woo, among others. Additional projects include ChaShaMa Gallery NYC with mixed media artist Alberte Bernier; Intercultural Roots in England with Alex Boyd and Maryam Safe; Encours: Site d’Art Contemporain, CND, and Maison des Associations in Paris with Asphodèle Danses Envol; and the À Corps Festival at the TAPS Theatre, Centre d’Animation de Beaulieu, and Maison des Étudiants with Isabelle Lamothe LaGrange. 

In Hawaiʻi, Dr. Miller actively contributes to the performing and visual arts community through dance making and artistic partnerships with organizations including ArtZone, Arts at Marks Garage, Aupuni Space, Aiea High School, Bishop Museum, Capitol Modern, Castle High School, Chinatown Wine and Design Store, Culture & Design, Doris Duke Theatre, Downtown Art Center, Earle Ernst Lab Theatre at the University of Hawaiʻi, Hawaii Convention Center, Hawaii Theatre, Honolulu Biennial, Honolulu Museum of Art, The Hub, KOA Theatre, Kennedy Theatre at the University of Hawaiʻi, Mid-Pacific Institute, Ong King Arts Center, Paliku Theatre, Rumours Night Club, Shangri La Museum of Islamic Art, Studio 909, and the Urban Makahiki. In Honolulu, Dr. Miller has contributed to local productions with Bollywood at HoMA, Kailua Dance Theatre, the House of Chandelier, electroViolet, the Spinning Goats, Giinko Maraschino, Honolulu Art Biennial, and Piko Dance Arts Installations. In 2021, Dr. Miller produced the inaugural Dance Media Now Community Dialogue Project, a virtual broadcast featuring distinguished dance artists from Hawaiʻi. She is a member of the Halau Pua Ali‘I ‘Ilima Halau Hula, under the direction of Kumu Vicky Holt Takamine and her son Jeff Takamine.

Dr. Miller’s award-winning dance films have been screened and honored at festivals and venues internationally. Her long-standing collaborations with Larry Asakawa have received official selections and awards at the Seoul SIDFIT Festival (South Korea), Europe Film Festival (United Kingdom), Harniscuss Film Festival (Türkiye), Open Vision Film Festival (Russia), DanCinema (Canada), Florence Dance on Screen Festival (Italy), Athens International Film Festival (Greece), LoudSoul Music Festival (Serbia), and the Oʻahu Fringe Festival and KOA Theatre in Honolulu. Her dance for the camera collaborations with Minerva Tapia Dance Group have been presented internationally at Centro Cultural Tijuana, Sala de Espectáculos del CECUT, Teatro Rubén Vizcaíno Valencia, CENARTE Foro Experimental, Cuerpos en Tránsito, La Escala/Centro Cultural Independiente (Mexico), the Istanbul Dance for Camera Festival (Türkiye), the Frida Kahlo Theater (Los Angeles), the Joyce SoHo (New York City), the Light Box Live Arts Festival (San Diego), the Orpheum Theatre at Northern Arizona University, and the University Theatre at the University of California, Riverside. At the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, Dr. Miller’s dance film choreography with filmmakers Larry Asakawa, Garin Nugroho, Vilsoni Hereniko and choreographers Peter Rockford Espiritu, and Rianto led to screenings at the Hawaiʻi International Film Festival, Jogja-NETPAC Asian Film Festival (Indonesia), Brisbane Asia Pacific Film Festival (Australia), ʻOhina Short Film Showcase (Hawaiʻi), and the Kaleidoscope Seni Filem SEA Showcase (Malaysia).

At the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, Dr. Miller has directed and choreographed numerous faculty and student productions presented at the Earle Ernst Lab Theatre and Kennedy Theatre. These productions have fostered interdisciplinary exchanges with choreographers, composers, filmmakers, media artists, designers, musicians, and cultural practitioners. Contributing artists and choreographers for these productions have included Peggy Gaither Adams, Sami L.A. Akuna, Sai Bhatawadekar, Jonathan Clarke Sypert, Kenny Endo, Peter Rockford Espiritu, Betsy Fisher, Charlene Hazelwood, Jaehyuk Jung, Pei-Ling Kao, Samjin Kim, Gregg Lizenbery, Mareva Minerbi, Moana Nepia, Lorenzo Perillo, Annie Reynolds, Frances Rings, Amy Schiffner, Yukie Shiroma, R. Kahaʻiʻōlelo Sueoka, Kumu Vicky Holt Takamine, I Made Widana, Kaʻohinani Yojo Daniels, and SheenRu Yong. Original music collaborators and composers have included Rafael Borges Amaral, Eric Chang, Keith Cross, Kenny Endo, Aaron Huisenfeldt, Takuma Itoh, Starr Kalahiki, Rich Rath, and John Signor. Dance films and movement media have been created in collaboration with Larry Asakawa, Mark Coniglio, Vilsoni Hereniko, Garin Nugroho, and Anne Selby. Additional creative collaborators have included wearable art designer Marques Marzan, costume designers Maile Speetjens and Cheri Vasek, lighting designers Asuka Endo, Rick Greaver, Brian Shevelenko, and Chenault Spence, and set designers Michelle Bisbee and Emma Robinson.

Her work has been recognized through numerous awards and fellowships, including the Jacob K. Javits Fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts Dance Awards, MAP Fund Choreography Award, Medici Scholars Award, CALIT2 Dance and New Media ArtsLab Performance Research Residency, East West Arts Center Grant, Langhans Grants, Honolulu Mayors Office on Culture and Arts (MOCA) Grant, Hawaiʻi Poʻokela Award for Choreography, Dean’s Travel Awards, and University of Hawaiʻi Research Council Awards.Currently, Dr. Miller is the founder and artistic director of Jhalak Dance Company based in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi.