RECENT PROJECTS

Mist Me has been selected for the 22nd edition Female Eye Film Festival (FeFF) this July 18 – July 21st, 2024!

Mist Me is part of the Ontario Filmmaker Series on Thursday, July 18 at 10am at the Paradise Theatre (1006c Bloor Street W. Toronto). An audience Q & A will follow. We extend our thanks to FeFF for their acknowledgment.

In a moving painting, Mist Me is about an artist who searches for her 6-year-old self. Amidst childhood traumas and adult treasures, she finds expansive flight in aging.

See tickets and full program below.

In Case of Emergency is now available to view and is open to the public!

In Case of Emergency premiered to across Canada, to the UK and premiered on Russian Children’s TV channel, Zeroplus over the past year.

In Case of Emergency is a film conceived by Karen and Allen Kaeja, directed by Allen, and co-curated with Aria Evans. This new film celebrates the mosaic of our community by highlighting the history and identity of 18 passionate dance artists. Each artist improvised movement of their informed practices inspired by a transformative moment in their childhood that they have been touched by. This project is supported by the Department of Canadian Heritage Support for Live Arts and Music Workers Fund.

Get ready, Toronto! We are thrilled to announce our beloved Porch View Dances is returning for its 13th annual year! Explore PVD 2024 for more info about the team, artists, choreographers, guides, and fun volunteering opportunities.

Join CinnaMoon Collective for contemporary movement workshops designed to help you expand your unique voice through dance.

Nickeshia Garrick & Irma Villafuerte are offering 2 youth-centred workshops (15-18) and 2 adult-centred workshops (Dancers and movers 19+) for a pay-what-you-can fee.

The workshops are presented in partnership with dance Immersion.

The first double-bill show of the dance Immersion season, featured the world premiere of Surrendered Spirits by CinnaMoon Collective and MÀSCARA an expanded work Pulga Muchochoma! At Berkeley Street Theatre, May 2nd- May 4th. Surrendered Spirits is a co-commission by curatorial and producing partners dance Immersion and Kaeja d’Dance. MÀSCARA is a dance Immersion commission.

Kitchen Dances, the 5 film series, premiered in 2024. Along with filmmaker extraordinaire Moze Mossanen, Karen and Allen Kaeja launched into co-producers - MAK DanceFilm Collective. Funded by the CCA Digital Now, our 5 short Kitchen Dances bring together an exciting team of 6 choreographers, 9 pro dancers and non-pro dancers, composers Phil Strong and Laurel MacDonald, and other film expert collaborators. Based on Porch View Dances, Kitchen Dances has a life of their own.

In January 2024, Kitchen Dances premiered at Dance Camera West Film Festival at the historic Barnsdall Art Park. Kitchen Dances was in a special screening at the Cannes Short Film Festival in London, UK on March 31st, 2024 at the Phoenix Cinema.

Porch View Dances (PVD) is Real People Dancing in Real Spaces. PVD is an award-winning community dance festival that engages everyday people as creators, storytellers and performers – many of whom have never danced before. Audience members travel from house to house to see new dance works created by professional choreographers and performed by everyday folk on porches, front yards, and driveways. PVD was founded by Karen Kaeja and developed with Allen Kaeja.

Karen and Allen Kaeja will share their collaborative approach of listening, creating and inspired moving together. Investigating gesture and movement infused by identity and meaning, the workshop is fuelled by imagery and physical gesture, in and out of contact, as a generative and wholesome experience. Participants personal material will serve as kindling for the creative fire. Karen and Allen draw on 40 years of practice in improvisation, contact dance and professional creation with dancers and non-pro community movers. All are welcome.

Karen and Allen will be touring two lifeDUETs to B.C. from June 6-9, 2024 - Lasterday by Hanna Kiel and 25 to 1 by Tedd Robinson. 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), and funded by the Ontario Arts Council and Canada Council for the Arts Touring. With performances on the North Island of both lifeDUETs, you can also witness  Lasterday at Dancing On The Edge in Vancouver on June 16 and 17. Catch Karen and Allen dancing into their 60’s. Info and tickets here:

8-COUNT Short Dance Film Series (part of Fall for Dance North 2023) featured 8 selected short films by national and international creators, including Karen and Allen Kaeja’s Challah, exploring Holocaust ancestry's impact.

Karen Kaeja’s newly commissioned duet called If We Could See Both Ways from Dust and Soul Dance Projects for Tara Butler and Nickeshia Garrick, was performed alongside choreographers Allison Cummings, Aria Evans, and Nickeshia Garrick. These remarkable works premiered on June 16-17, 2023, at Kitchener's Registry Theatre, showcasing the artistic vision of these talented femme artists. The performances encompassed themes of life and death, peace and balance, motherhood, and the celebration of femme resilience, taking the audience on an evocative journey.

Hanna Kiel was commissioned to create a new lifeDUETs for Karen and Allen. 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.

A ‘Lasterday’ site specific film is in the works thanks to CCA Digital Now.

Karen and Allen premiered the duet at Older + Reckless in November 2023, with plans to take the duet on tour in BC in 2024.

As part of DCD’s Discover Diaglogues, Allen Kaeja discussed his article “Moving Memories: Kaeja Explores the Holocaust through Dance and Film”.

Grounded in memory, Karen Kaeja’s TouchX, and Allen Kaeja and Bruce Barton’s I am the Child of… (a collaboration between Kaeja d’Dance and Vertical City Performance), investigate the complexity of our lived experience. Community, perspective, and augmented reality technology creates two evocative worlds in this double bill show.

In Case of Emergency is a film conceived by Karen and Allen Kaeja, directed by Allen, and co-curated with Aria Evans. This new film celebrates the mosaic of our community by highlighting the history and identity of 18 passionate dance artists. Each artist improvised movement of their informed practices inspired by a transformative moment in their childhood that they have been touched by.

Slipping is a new dance film that explores an intimate journey of four women's lives, as they slip between emotional and psychological torment. The characters coexist through their unfolding stories in a century old mansion. Their only link to reality is each other. Conceived and filmed in rural Quebec with an all female team, co-directors Roshanak Jaberi and Karen Kaeja set out to merge their artistic voices.

The 2022 iteration of our beloved festival, featuring ‘real people dancing in real spaces’! An interactive treasure hunt had senses and imagination soaring throughout Seaton Village. Engaging with live and virtual performances choreographed by professional dance artists, experiences of live dances, augmented reality (AR) and mini dance films featured the heartwarming stories of everyday folk.

Karen, Allen, and Nickeshia Garrick travelled to Oregon in January 2023 for a performance in the Smith Fine Arts Series.

this place is a new duet commissioned by Mateo Galindo Torres for Karen Kaeja. The hybrid theatre film of this place was created in Fall 2021 and screened by Citadel+ Compagnie.

A site-specific project featuring Dance Film and Augmented Reality in two Toronto laneways as part of ArtworxTO: Toronto's Year of Public Art 2021 – 2022.

PVD10 was a virtual event that celebrated ten years of "real people dancing in real spaces"! Led by Curator and Production Director Michael Caldwell.

Virtual workshops in which participants collaboratively created new movement experiences based on personal stories.