"RAVISHING TO LOOK AT!" Globe & Mail
Since 1991, Karen and Allen Kaeja have garnered praise and acclaim from the international dance community. They have presented over 60 original works and have been commissioned to choreograph pieces for both local dance companies and dance troupes in England, Mexico, India, Sweden and the United States.
Masters of Contact Dance, Kaeja d'Dance is known for sophisticated partnering; creating exhilarating and physically demanding contemporary dance work. The Kaejas’ pieces are engaging and accessible, as witnessed by the ensemble of their work and the diversity of their audiences.
|
| |
 |
 |
 |
| |
Tabled Manners, an adaptation of Asylum of Spoons for student audiences, is a contemporary dance piece that merges with the theatrical; creating a fascinating segue of drama and dance. This piece explores the dynamic relationships between characters in the “asylum” of the family gathering, referring to both the nurturing and hilarious episodes that can ensue. Tabled Manners explores the themes of individuality, power struggles and group dynamics, understanding and acceptance, culminating in a moral finale that speaks to the merit of accepting each individual for who they are (rather than conforming to the norms of the group).
In creating Tabled Manners , choreographer Allen Kaeja began with the concept of an abandoned house – with the characters representing the walls of the home that retain the memories, fears and passions of the previous lives within them.
|
|
| |
Resistance (2000) – Allen Kaeja’s Resistance is a full evening work that explores the power of the human spirit against oppression. Completing his second Holocaust trilogy, the work lets loose an ensemble of six exceptional performers in a powerful experience of daring trust and uncompromising physicality. On a sparse stage, it is solely the dancer’s body, with five benches, that creates an environment of reflection, violence and intimacy. Resistance marks Allen's signature and powerful athletic aesthetic.
"Beautifully evocative, powerfully realized and ultimately uplifting work". Washington Post
|
|
In an Empty House Rising Toronto dancer and choreographer Jessica Runge brings her latest work to the program. This new solo, created for the remarkable Karen Kaeja, is set to the major solo piano work "Étude Fantasy" by Pulitzer prize-winning composer John Corigliano (music for "The Red Violin").
Performed by Canadian pianist Stephen Runge, this technically demanding and emotionally taut musical work forms a frame for a dance that revels in Karen’s diverse aptitudes, showcasing at once her distinctive capacity for luscious movement and her powerfully electric energy. Here is straightforward, mesmerizing dance: bold and unabashed, Runge’s new work is a study of one of Toronto’s most dynamic dancers.
|
"Karen Kaeja proves again that she is one of the city's most watchable performers." NOW magazine |
HOUR to OUR
Dancers | Piotr Biernat &
Tanya Crowder |
Choreographed by Karen Kaeja, this twenty-minute work shapes her curiosity of time and longevity into an inquisitive duet of sweet anxiety. In Hour to OUR, two peculiar characters become preoccupied with one another after having been isolated for years within the same everyday working environment. The piece begins at the point where they are each in their own world, yet inhabiting a close proximity. They soon shift from imagination to discovery of one another. In a slightly altered menagerie of time, their senses and desires lead them into swooning acts of spontaneous liberation amidst other interactions and oddities. Hour to OUR premiered at VIVID 2003 in Toronto and featured Piotr Biernat and Tanya Crowder.
"Hour to OUR is a beautifully shaped ode to partnership…" Toronto Star
"Kaeja has created many fascinating physical collision points…between frenetic freewheeling movement and intense staring matches, and the audience is drawn in by the dancers and their compelling performances." Globe and Mail
|
SARAH
Dancer | Karen Kaeja |
Choreographed by Karen and Allen Kaeja, Sarah is an 11-minute dance based on the unknown destiny of the woman married to Allen Kaeja’s father (Munniac Nossal) prior to WWII. After they were sent off to different concentration camps, she was not seen again. Karen and Allen often wondered how she endured the separation, and how her instinct for survival affected her appearance, her demeanour and her direction. How did she face her will to survive, her premonitions of war and a loss of loved ones? Sarah first premiered in 1994 and is now part of the Kaeja d’Dance repertoire. Sarah has been performed across Canada and was made into a short film in 1999.
"I was moved by SARAH... the work is kinetically haunted by undercurrents of deep sorrow and loss." eye weekly
"Sarah was beautifully performed by Karen…a dance of defiance in the face of the holocaust." Dance International Magazine
|
The Women’s Project
Performers | Megan Andrews & Parmela Attariwala |
The Women’s Project is a body of short works in development by Karen Kaeja on solo female dancers who are masters in their own unique form of dance expression. Through the filter of their personal, cultural and artistic background combined with the aesthetic of Karen’s own movement vocabulary, these solos become singular frameworks for each dancer. They are "solos of substance...to capture the physical essence of each woman" (globe and mail). The dancers are Joanna de Sousa, Nova Bhattacharya and Lata Pada (south asian), Roula Said (middle eastern) and Megan Andrews (contemporary). Composer Parmela Attariwala performs live for each solo .
|
LifeDUETs
Dancers|Karen & Allen Kaeja |
Karen and Allen Kaeja’s creative and passionate relationship has evolved through the undertaking of a mixed repertory program entitled lifeDUETs. After more than a decade of creating individual and combined choreographies, beginning in 1998, Allen and Karen have been inviting seasoned Canadian choreographers to create new works specially designed for their unique physicality. The combination of Karen’s sensual vulnerability and fluid physicality with Allen’s explosive kinetics is an exciting dynamic for choreographers and presenters of lifeDUETs. Commissioned choreographers include Marie-Josée Chartier, Peter Bingham and Claudia Moore. Seven lifeDUETs, including Elements of Touch and Desperate Song, have toured across Canada and internationally including performances in Mexico, Spain and India.
"…visually extravagant, emotionally complex"
The Globe and Mail
"The coolest couple on the dance scene…their ongoing lifeDUETs series is nothing less than astonishing." NOW Magazine
|
IMPROVISATION
Karen and Allen have a continuing series of Improvisational works designed specifically for a site or venue. Some involve only Karen and Allen, while other works include the full Company.
Most recently Karen and Allen performed at the Miles Nadal Jewish Cultural Centre’s Donor Gala, at the Distillery District’s Jazz Festival for three bands, and at Harbourfront’s World Fare for a televised cooking show.
In the past Karen and Allen have performed at the Hamilton Art Gallery for "Photophobia" (an alternative video art festival) and in the lobby of Roy Thomson Hall as part of a du Maurier Concert Stage evening with Big Wreck and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. They have integrated an Improvisation, In Case of Fire, designed by Karen and Allen for the full Company, into their touring repertoire. These performances allow the Kaejas to hone their process and explore the nature of their impulse-based process.
|
"The Kaeja's are masters of the art of Contact Improvisation" Canadian Jewish News
"Gorgeous liquid athleticism that is luxuriously kinetic….the dancing is delicious." eye magazine
|
Touring
Kaeja d’Dance has performed across Canada in venues such as the National Arts Centre, Ottawa (the Canada Dance Festival), L’Agora and Tangente (Montreal), Live Arts Productions - the Dunn Theatre (Halifax), the Banff Centre for the Performing Arts (Alberta), Jack Singer Concert Hall (Calgary), Grant MacEwan College (Edmonton), University of Lethbridge Theatre, Yukon Arts Centre (Whitehorse), the Vancouver East Cultural Centre and Harbourfront Centre’s Premiere Dance Theatre Series (Toronto), among others.
Internationally, Kaeja d’Dance has toured to the USA, UK, Portugal, Mexico, Sweden, Venezuela and Thailand. In October 2002, Karen and Allen toured to Bilbao, Spain where they performed at the Guggenheim Museum. Following this performance, they toured to Chennai, India in December 2002, where they were commissioned to create a work on Arangham Dance Theatre and to perform two pieces from their lifeDUETs series and present two films at Chennai’s "Other Festival".
|
|
