lifeDUET: Lasterday

lifeDUET: Lasterday

With this new duet Lasterday, we explore how two individuals carry different memories and perceptions of the same events from their shared past. This concept delves into various aspects of their relationship, including their sense of timeline, emotional impacts, and interactions throughout their life journey, all through the lens of how they remember and interpret their shared history.

Karen and Allen will be touring two lifeDUETs to B.C. in June - Lasterday by Hanna Kiel and 25 to 1 by Tedd Robinson. Locations will be announced soon. The Kaeja’s lifeDUETs commissioning series for Karen and Allen Kaeja explore their lifelong creative and personal partnership. Many duets have toured across the world through Canada and to Spain, India, England, Japan, Mexico, Venezuela and Israel. They have been performed since the year 2000. The lifeDUETs BC Tour is initiated by BCMAS (BC Movement Arts Society).

Lasterday Premiere

lifeDUET commission

Credits

Producer
Kaeja d’Dance

Choreographic Concept and Direction
Hanna Kiel

Created with and Performed by
Karen Kaeja and Allen Kaeja

Costume Design
Julia Kim

Lighting Design
Gavin MacDonald

Original Music
Adam Campbell

Photographer
Drew Berry

Credits, Media, Tech

"A profound exchange, I witnessed the ephemeral nature of life."

Hanna Kiel on the creative process
"Wonderful piece, filled with swagger, joy and the multifaceted complexity of relationships. A joy to watch such seasoned creators connect.”

Audience member
"When I notice that Allen has rested his hand on Karen’s knee, I find myself thinking of the likes of Kahlo and Rivera, Plath and Hughes, Stein and Toklas – artistic couples in which a profound affinity for a shared form proved transformative."

Martha Schabas, Globe and Mail
"What a fine piece of work! We were moved and amused by so many moments of self-recognition. It is a great artistic achievement to find the “universal” in such personal moments. To communicate so much through emblematic movement and gesture – what a triumph!”

Steven Bush
"As dancers, they are striking to look at – Allen has a sturdy, imposing largeness that’s infused with warmth and gentleness. Karen is fiercely beautiful with hard features and a mass of thick burgundy hair. When she dances, her reserve turns into something almost violently intense.”

Martha Schabas, Globe and Mail