Karen Kaeja is an award-winning performer, choreographer, project instigator and mentor. “The mastermind behind Porch View Dances” Toronto Star, she develops platforms for collaborative relationships between dancers, everyday people and the body. Co-Artistic Director of Kaeja d’Dance with Allen Kaeja, she is in The Canadian Who’s Who and Theatre Dance in Canada encyclopedias. Her awards include the 2022 George Luscombe Mentorship Award, 2020 Dance Ontario Lifetime Achievement Award, CDA “I Love Dance” Community Award, and Paul D. Fleck Fellowship for Innovation. A finalist for the TAF Celebration of Cultural Life Award, the TAF Muriel Sherrin Award for International Achievement, NOW’s Best Local Choreographer and Best Dance Company, Karen Kaeja is twice named one of NOW’s top 10 dance artists. A 7-time Dora Mavor Moore nominee, her work Crave received 4 Dora nominations, winning one. The heart of her research, choreography and critical writing for the past 30 years, concentrates on Touch, where the celebration of body memory as a living archive are in a continuous state of rebalancing. Commissioned and presented by performance series around the world, Karen Kaeja collaborates and dances with many of Canada’s brilliant choreographers.
-Written by Dr. Blake Martin
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Which ’hood are you in?
I live in Seaton Village, Toronto
What do you do?
I am a Dance artist and Co-Artistic Director of Kaeja d’Dance. I choreograph, perform, create dance film, mentor, and teach. My work has lived in theatres and informal sites around the world.
What are you currently working on?
A work that has been developed over 7 years called TouchX. It has 37 people on stage performing – including professionals and everyday people.
Where can we find your work?
This work was presented on November 11-13 as PART OF TORQUE International Contemporary Dance Series at Harbourfront Centre Theatre. Info online here.
