Karen Kaeja Receives George Luscombe Mentorship Award
We would like to extend a warm congratulations to all the Dora Award nominees who were announced today! We celebrate the arts in all its forms and everything these amazing artists have accomplished.
We would also like to share some exciting news of our own; Karen is the 2022 recipient of the George Luscombe Mentorship Award!
-
Steven Bush and Karen Kaeja stand in-front of a backdrop with text that reads Dora Mavor Moore Awards and the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts logo in a pattern. Steven holds a small red envelope and gazes seriously towards the camera. Karen smiles at the camera.
Awarded every two years, the George Luscombe Mentorship Award recognizes individuals for mentorship in the performing arts. Karen has demonstrated the ability to challenge and nurture future generations of dancers over the years. She holds space for agency and individuality while empowering her mentees, resulting in work that resonates with the artists involved and the audience. She further invests her time and knowledge with the artists she collaborates with while being a strong pillar of support.
“I truly love mentoring and dramaturgy and have had the pleasure of doing so with many dance artists from all walks of life over the past two decades. Mentorship relationships permeate a lifetime of connection and communication. It gives me great pleasure to unravel, learn and deepen curious artists ’practices, while tending to the correlation of thinking, imaging and the moving body, within the creative process. For me, the mentor/mentee equation leans into an intimacy of minds that flourish, a kind of two-way symbiosis. I am always learning with my senses and my heart from the next generation.”
– Karen Kaeja, 2022 George Luscombe Award Recipient
-
Image 1: The Kaeja family (Aniya, Mika, Karen, and Allen) stand in front of a window smiling at the camera.
Image 2: Karen Kaeja stands speaking into a microphone. Behind her is a backdrop with text that reads Dora Mavor Moore Awards and the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts logo in a pattern.
Image 3: Steven Bush stands in-front of the backdrop from the first photo. He speaks into a microphone and gestures with one hand.
About the Award
Marking the beginning of the Canadian alternative theatre movement, artistic director and theatre founder George Luscombe began Toronto Workshop Productions in 1959. George spent 27 years at Toronto Workshop Productions, marking the longest tenure of any artistic director in Canada. The Mentorship Award recipient is chosen by a designated committee and receives a framed print by Theo Dimson, a copy of the book Conversations with George Luscombe: Steven Bush in conversation with the Canadian Theatre visionary and a cash prize of $1,000 through the generous sponsorship of the Kingfisher Foundation.
Read the full press release on TAPA’s website.
Read Karen’s acceptance speech.