Karen Ruimy

Early life

Karen was born in Casablanca. Her family moved to Paris when Karen was seven. She gained an MBA at the Grand Ecole ESSEC in Paris. At the same time as her studies, Karen learnt flamenco dance with Adrian y Blanca from Seville.

Career – Author

Karen has written two books The Angel’s Metamorphosis which was published in France in 2000 and an English Language version in 2010 in the UK by Quartet Books. Karen featured on Elizabeth Kinder's Magna Intuitum in 2013. Karen is a contributor to UK Psychologies Magazine for whom she conducts a series interviews, including Eva Longoria. She is also part of their expert LifeLab series. Karen is a regular contributor to Huffington Post and the Harper’s Bazaar online Arts Channel.

Career - Dancer

Karen became a professional Flamenco dancer at the age of 38, she has produced dance shows called Flamen'ka, Flamen’ka Nueva, Cabaret Flamen'ka, Sangre (directed and choreographed by Redha Benterifour opened at the Riverside Studios), El Camino (co produced and co written by Martin Glover) which was performed at the World Sufi Spirit Festival in Jodphur India ZIK'R (also created with Martin Glover) has been performed at Sufi Sutra Festival in India, the Marrakech Biennale, Sadler's Wells Lilian Baylis, Union Chapel and La Linea Festival at Leicester Square Theatre.

Career – Musician and Singer

Karen has released the following albums: Essence de Femme . Come With Me, which was recorded at Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studios with Justin Adams. The album was co-written with Justin Adams and produced by Martin Glover. A version of Shake it Up featured on the Telegraph Live Music Sessions.

Art

In November 2013 Karen co-founded the Marrakech Museum of Photography and Visual Arts MMPVA

Activism

In 2015 Karen signed an open letter which the ONE Campaign had been collecting signatures for; the letter was addressed to Angela Merkel and Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, urging them to focus on women as they serve as the head of the G7 in Germany and the AU in South Africa respectively, which will start to set the priorities in development funding before a main UN summit in September 2015 that will establish new development goals for the generation.