Porch View Dances 2022: Discovery Walk

Porch View Dances: Discovery Walk was the 2022 iteration of our 11th annual beloved festival, featuring ‘real people dancing in real spaces’! Audiences engaged in an interactive treasure hunt that had senses and imagination soaring throughout Seaton Village. Our PVD tour guide escorted audiences to a series of interest points where they could engage in person with live and virtual performances. Choreographed by professional dance artists, experiences of live dances, augmented reality (AR) and mini dance films once again featured the heartwarming and real stories of everyday folk, funnelling out the front door of neighbourhood homes onto their porches and lawns.

PVD: Discovery Walk commissioned choreographers Nickeshia Garrick and Irma Villafuerte (Kaeja d’Dance KAIR Artists) to collaborate for the live opening creation. Celebrating queer and migrant experience of their elders, they offer creation from a place of warrior, healing and joy.

Returning in-person, the tour will concluded with a Flock Landing, a participatory, site-specific activation which invited people of all ages and mobility levels to join a collective movement ensemble. Led by professional dancers, it embraced simple easy to follow moving gestures that welcomed you to become part of the finale experience.

Press

Dance Current Review

The Dance Debrief Review

Read the Porch View Dances: Discovery Walk Program

Performance Photos

Mary Moonshine

Image Description: Mary Moonshine, a brown person with shoulder-length wavy blue hair, blue lipstick, and long eyelashes, speaks into a megaphone. Mary wears a black and white dress, black high-heeled boots, and short black gloves. Some plants and a house are in the background.

Abena, Ana, and Dree

Image Description: Abena and Ana hold hands as Ana reaches out for Dree. To the left of the image are audience members. Behind them are a street and trees.

Abena

Abena, barefoot, is peeking around a tree, with their hands on the tree. There is a person wearing a blue dress and hat standing next to a speaker attached to a stand. In the background are trees and houses.

Ana, Dree, and Abena

Ana and Dree are facing Abena. Dree and Abena are reaching for each other, while Ana is just behind Dree, her hands forming a V-shape, and wrists together. They are standing on the porch of a house.

Ana, Dree and Abena

Ana, Dree and Abena, a 64-year-old queer disabled femme-presenting African hueman stand facing each other, clapping. Ana is walking down the porch steps of the house behind them.

Ana, Dree, and Abena

Ana, Dree and Abena face each other, their arms stretched out to either side of them. Behind them are houses and plants.

Ana and Dree

Ana, a Queer Latina with short hair, has her hands stretched out in front of her, her wrists touching. Dree stands behind her. There is a house with Christmas lights behind them.

Mary and an Audience Member

Mary Moonshine and an audience member are crouching by the audience member's dog. Mary and the dog look toward the camera while the audience member looks at Mary. Behind them are trees, plants, and a house.

Mio, Mary, and audience members

Mio Sakamoto, an East Asian woman with long wavy dark brown hair, Mary Moonshine, and audience members pose, leaning to their right, with their right leg stretched out and their hands on their hips. They are on a field with houses and trees behind them.

Mary and Audience Members

Mary Moonshine and audience members stand in a park, clapping with their hands above their heads. In the background are trees, houses, and cars.

Community Partners

PVD Artistic Director, Founder, and Concept
Karen Kaeja

PVD Developed by
Karen Kaeja
Allen Kaeja

In-Person Porch Dance: Ara Shushit or "Flower Bodies"

Choreographers
Nickeshia Garrick
Irma Villafuerte

Community Participants
Abena
Ana
Dree

Flock Landing Dancers
Meryem Alaoui
Mateo Galindo-Torres
Jessica Germano
Cassandra Grose
Lilia Leon
Mio Sakamoto
Irma Villafuerte

Tour Guide
Jake Runeckles

Video Editor
Drew Berry

See Artist Bios

Pieces featured in QR Code Films:

Around the Moon
Choreographed by Andrea Nann with Michelle Silagy

Danced by The Greenwood Ensemble:
Ben Clement, Laura Gallagher-Doucette. Morgan Joy, Krystal Nausbaum, Madeleine Stratton

Ec.o.sys.tem
Choreographed by Kathleen Rea
Danced by Shay Erlich, Kyla Landon, Jen Roy, Anastasia Watson, Lesley White

A Wink O’Kerrs
Choreographed by Karen Kaeja

Danced by Garrett Kerr, Julia Wyncoll, Ella, Olivia, and Willem

Comme un Enfant (“Like a Child”)
Choreographed by Karen and Allen Kaeja

Danced by Ilana Bereskin and Ahava

Bawddjigan Mugwa (Bear Dream)
Choreographed by Allison Cummings

Danced by Jim Adams and Owen

Vignette: Memories Under the Willow Tree
Choreographed by Lua Shayenne

Danced by Nyda Kwasowsky and Lua Shayenne

Vignette: Path
Choreographed by Pulga Muchochoma
Danced by Deltin Sejour and Yui Ugai

Excerpts from I am the Child of…
Choreographed by Allen Kaeja
Dramaturge Bruce Barton

Created with and Performed by: Michael Caldwell, Aria Evans, Nickeshia Garrick, Karen Kaeja, Mio Sakamoto

2022 Creative Team
Karen Kaeja
Allen Kaeja
Raeburn Ferguson

2022 Administrative Team

Managing Director
Raeburn Ferguson

Project & Communications Manager
Sarah Caraher

Production Assistant
Faizah Syeda

Production Stage Manager
Hunter Kennedy-Rullo

Digital Support
Sumer Jawaid

Graphic Design
Adriano Bertuzzo

Marketing Assistants
Joanna de Villa
Michael Napao
Shajiba Sooriyakumar

Produced and Presented by
Kaeja d’Dance

See Staff Bios

Porch View Dances: Discovery Walk Films

Below are the short dance films that were part of PVD 2022. These works were commissioned by Kaeja d’Dance for Porch View Dances: Discovery Walk 2022. Porch View Dances was conceived by Karen Kaeja and developed with Allen Kaeja.

Porch View Dances 2022: Discovery Walk

Press

Performance Photos

Sponsors

Community Partners

Porch View Dances: Discovery Walk Films