Fallow

Fallow was a single-take livestream performance experience conceived by Karen Kaeja, specifically devised for #CanadaPerforms National Arts Centre / Centre national des Arts during COVID-19. It was then reshot and developed into a film through CCA Digital Originals in Fall 2020. The Fallow remake was screened in the 2021 Online Contact Dance International Film Festival in the HOLDING SPACES series of short films.

PREMIERED: MAY 13, 2020

Description

Fallow features Karen as dancer/choreographer, steeped in physical image and Allen as moving camera articulating the lens image. Collaboratively, both artists are making real-time choices as they respond to their environment and each other. During this period of isolated destabilization that screams a deafening silence, the artists focus on being present together in real-time in their palpable life setting. The underscore twists the visual expectations of inner homestead with living external images. One is dropped into a slightly a-skewed utopia, out of place, and into a world yet to be understood. The dancer’s relationship to her inner and outer environment transforms from an ethereal other world into her experience today.

Fallow Film Trailer

A woman donned in a purplish red dress, and hood, while sitting in a bright red chair in the middle of the woods

Woman dancing in a blue and black dress, while framed by tree branches

Portrait of a woman in a dark red cloak in the woods

Birds eye view photo of a woman looking towards the camera, captured while in dance

Woman in a blue dress peeking around a wooden shed in a forest area

woman in a blue dress with her back against a shed, while extending her hand forward along the shed

Close up of a woman with dark hair, and her head looking down, against a tree and resting on a branch

Two dancers, the male holding the female as she is laying in his arms, in front of a red couch outdoors

Two dancers, holding the each others hand, while leaning and pulling in the opposite direction

Bird's eye view photo of a woman while dancing, and creating hand gestures above her

Photos by Allen Kaeja

CONCEPT & CHOREOGRAPHY
Karen Kaeja

CO-DIRECTORS
Karen Kaeja
Allen Kaeja

CAMERA
Allen Kaeja

PERFORMERS
Karen Kaeja with Allen Kaeja

COMPOSER
Edgardo Moreno

COSTUME
Karen Kaeja (Cloak designed and built by Cheryl Lalonde for Asylum of Spoons)

TECHNICAL
Allen Kaeja
Beata Rasitsan

TECH ASSIST
Jonathan Lander
Edgardo Moreno

INTERIOR MAILBOX DESIGN
Karen Kaeja
Melissa Norris

LIVESTREAM PERFORMANCE
broadcast from South Bruce Peninsula

PRODUCED BY KAEJA D'DANCE

THANK YOU

It was a privilege to be a part of and perform on this series during our COVID isolation. Thank you to the National Arts Centre / Centre national des Arts, Facebook, Slaight Music, the RBC Foundation, SiriusXM Canada, staff at the Kaeja hub - Yolanda Ferrato and Beata Rasitsan, The Patch, Aniya and Mika Kaeja, Justin Schmidt and Malgorzata Nowacka-May. Kaeja thanks our season funders, the Canada Council for the Arts | Conseil des arts du Canada, the Toronto Arts Council, the Ontario Arts Council - Conseil des arts de l'Ontario, the Ontario Arts Foundation, the Green Fischer Family Trust, the Lindy Green Family Foundation and all our individual donors.

Acknowledging Saugeen Ojibway Nation

Territory Fallow was streamed live from South Bruce Peninsula. This is the first time we have performed on this land where we have incubated creations for the past two decades. We would like to acknowledge that we are dancing on the traditional land of the Saugeen Ojibway Nation, which is represented by the communities of Saugeen First Nation and Chippewas of Nawash Unceded First Nation. We also acknowledge the Métis Nation of Ontario, whose history and people are well represented in Bruce and Grey Counties. We are thankful to create and express our imaginations on their land.