lifeDUET: 25 to 1

In 1998, Karen and Allen Kaeja embarked on lifeDUETs – a duet-commissioning series. Variations of this critically acclaimed program toured across the world. In 2015, a new program of lifeDUETs was created for Kaeja d’Dance’s 25th anniversary. Including commissions from incomparable choreographers Tedd Robinson and Benjamin Kamino, this program is a celebration of family, of company, of love and partnership.

Tedd Robinson’s work, 25 to 1, is seeded in 25 positions of tenderness. But living in love for 25 years requires many states – this work portrays caring, but also the reality of long-term commitment. 25 to 1 is an intimate rendering of living life together in dance, the business and the art, sometimes invisibly supported by each other, other times directly in opposition, but always working within the safe shelter of a kiss.

Karen and Allen Kaeja have recently toured for 3 weeks in British Columbia with a BCMAS New Creation Residency and performances of their lifeDUETs - Lasterday and 25 to 1, plus In Case of Fire community integrated work, in PORT MCNEILL, SOINTULA, and 'NAMGIS NATION/ALERT BAY. They also performed Lasterday at Dancing on the Edge (DOTE).

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.

Other past lifeDUETs (besides the lifeDUETs on our website) have also been created by Peter Bingham, Claudia Moore, Marie-Josée Chartier.

25 to 1

lifeDUET commission

Credits

Photos by Zhenya Cerneacov

Choreography by Tedd Robinson

Costumes by Tedd Robinson and Karen and Allen Kaeja

Lighting by Simon Rossiter

  • 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

  • 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

  • Their merging feels part of their very DNA - reverberating at the cellular level.

    Emma Doran, Dance Current

  • Here, ladies and gentleman, is a middle aged couple still hot for each other. That alone is worth the price of admission.

    Deirdre Kelly, Critics at Large

  • The tent looks like a cocoon, and when the couple enters the understanding is that their goal is a transformative act of procreation. Two halves become one. They kiss again, and, as they slide provocatively below the transparency of the mosquito netting, you think for once you really shouldn't be watching this. But you can't tear your eyes away.

    Deirdre Kelly, Critics at Large

  • A meditation on emotional polarities of a long-term partnership are, in fact, not oppositional but cut from the same cloth. The tempos mutually conveyed by the Kaejas reverberate through the theatre. Each work leaves us with the resonant pulses of their partnership.

    Emma Doran, Dance Current

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lifeDUETs: Lasterday
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