CLOUD 9 and KAEJA D'DANCE Open This Tuesday in Repertory!

MOonhORsE Dance Theatre and Kaeja d'Dance serve up the best in Canadian contemporary dance as they share a two-week engagement at The Theatre Centre from Tuesday May 9 to Saturday May 20 with works by award-winning choreographers, featuring some of Canada's most celebrated dancers.

The two companies present two different programs that will be performed in repertory, comprised of world premieres - Bird Nesting in Fingers in Bloom by DA Hoskins and DEFIANT by Allen Kaeja - and smash hits Room #7 by Montreal's Lina Cruz and Crave by Karen Kaeja.

The schedule and details follow:
MOonhORsE Dance Theatre presents a Cloud 9 production: Room #7 and Bird Nesting in Fingers in Bloom
May 9, 10, 13, 18 & 19 at 8:00pm; May 20 at 2:00pm
Cloud 9, a division of MOonhORsE Dance Theatre that commissions works by acclaimed choreographers for seasoned dance artists, is led by co-directors Karen Kaeja and Claudia Moore. Cloud 9 was launched to audience and critical acclaim in June 2013 with commissioned works by Susie Burpee and Tedd Robinson at the Young Centre, and is thrilled to return with two dynamic creations. It raises the artform to new heights in new works by Lina Cruz and DA Hoskins for some of Canada's most revered older dancers.

In the Toronto premiere of Lina Cruz's Room #7, legendary performers Louise Bédard (Quebec), Karen Kaeja and Claudia Moore are a territorial trio, revealing themselves as unusual heroines claiming the right to their small chaotic world. They are accompanied by their stage-confidant, musician-performer Philippe Noireaut. Room #7 premiered at the 2016 Canada Dance Festival. DA Hoskins creates a potent reflection of the self, personally and collectively, in the world premiere of Bird Nesting in Fingers in Bloom. Powerful and poetic, Hoskin's quartet for performers Larry Hahn, Karen Kaeja, Claudia Moore and Robert Regala is a wordless collision of experience that binds the players' bodies in a sharing of understanding, a wisdom that renders the illuminations of the self, tactile.

Kaeja d'Dance presents: Crave and DEFIANT
May 11, 12, 16, 17 & 20 at 8:00pm; May 13 at 2:00pm
At the forefront of contemporary dance for over 25 years, internationally acclaimed Kaeja d'Dance presents a stunning program of works by co-Artistic Directors (and married couple) Karen and Allen Kaeja. Revisiting Karen's smash hit Crave, and presenting Allen's exhilarating world premiere DEFIANT, this program features all the hallmarks of the Kaeja aesthetic - sensual, theatrical and fierce.
Crave is poignant, whimsical and chaotic. A duet that mines intimacy while navigating loneliness, unsettledness and the hope that keeps us hanging on, it explores the push and pull of the ties that bind us or tear us apart. Sarah Shugarman's beautiful score will now be brought to life by a live string quartet. As part of the pre-show, audience members are invited to join Dance With Me, a slow dance on stage with a partner, friend or stranger. Crave is performed by the original dancers of this 2013 work: Stéphanie Tremblay and Michael Caldwell.

DEFIANT is brutal, visceral and provocative. Combined with an original score by Edgardo Moreno, this world premiere harnesses the intense physicality of seven Kaeja dancers featuring Karen Kaeja with Michael Caldwell, Zhenya Cerneacov, Ana Claudette Groppler, merideth plumb, Stéphanie Tremblay and Mateo Galindo Torres. This new work delves into light within darkness, the resonance of rebellion, and the beauty of failure.

About the Choreographers:
Lina Cruz - choreographer Room #7 (Cloud 9 / MOonhORsE Dance Theatre) Lina Cruz, Artistic Director of Fila 13, is a prolific creator from Montreal with an astonishing imagination. Over the past 10 years, Toronto audiences have been fortunate to see several of her works including Soupe du Jour (2011) and Waiting for a sleepless night (2015), both presented by princess productions' dance: made in canada/fait au canada festival. Soupe du Jour received 2012 Dora Mavor Moore Awards for Outstanding Choreography for Cruz and Outstanding Sound Design/Composition for Lina's musical collaborator, Philippe Noireaut. DanceWorks presented Lina and Philippe's breathtaking commission for Throwdown Collective, Ylem (3 Eggs Ago), at Harbourfront Centre Theatre in February 2017. Lina and Philippe have participated in a range of Toronto dance/music performances including Toronto Dance Theatre's Four at the Winch Quebec and Older & Reckless, as well as collaborations for Indigenous Dance Residency 2014 (Banff Centre), several theatre companies (Montreal and Toronto) and contemporary opera projects. Originally from Colombia, Cruz's work is highly regarded as an original voice in the Canadian dance scene, crossing the boundaries of music, dance, theatre and opera. www.fila13.com, www.moonhorsedance.com/cloud9
DA Hoskins - choreographer Bird Nesting in Fingers in Bloom (Cloud 9 / MOonhORsE Dance Theatre) DA Hoskins, Artistic Director of The Dietrich Group, is a choreographer and visual artist. Recipient of the Clifford E. Lee Award from the Banff Centre for the Arts and the KM Hunter Award, Hoskins has created over 60 choreographic works including commissions from the Elora Music Festival, Pendrecki String Quartet, Arts Umbrella Vancouver, Kitchener Waterloo Symphony, Hubbard Street Dance II in Chicago, Dancetheatre David Earle, Ballet Jorgen Canada, Toronto Dance Theatre and Via Salzburg Chamber Orchestra. In 2008, DA Hoskins instigated The Dietrich Group - a platform to create potent interdisciplinary works in dance. Since its inception, The Dietrich Group has created five full evening works including ARTFAG (Buddies in Bad Times Theatre), PORTRAIT (The Theatre Centre, Toronto and Festival TransAmerique, Montreal), Paris1994/Gallery (which received three Dora Mavor Moore Award nominations and was presented at World Stage 2012 and at the da:ns Festival in Singapore) and The Land of Fuck (a fable) (Workman Arts Theatre, Toronto and Place des Arts, Montreal). Recent productions include This is a Costume Drama (World Stage 2015) and FLORENCE (The Collective Space 2016). www.thedietrichgroup.com, www.moonhorsedance.com/cloud9

Allen Kaeja - choreographer DEFIANT (Kaeja d'Dance) Allen Kaeja is an internationally recognized and award-winning dance-film director and choreographer who has created over 160 stage works and choreographed for 27 films. Allen is Co-Artistic Director of Kaeja d'Dance with Karen Kaeja, runner-up of NOW Magazine's Best Dance Company award and he is co-founder of the CanAsian Dance Festival. His stage and film works have been presented in festivals around the world. Allen has received dozens of national and international commissions, teaches Kaeja Elevations and Dance Film master classes worldwide, was recently nominated for Ontario's Arts Education Award and received the Katheryn Ash Award for Choreography 2016. Allen also co-developed many site-specific and audience interactive engagement performance strategies with Karen Kaeja over the past 30 years. Allen and Karen have recently completed a full company tour to Mexico and were just in Newfoundland, Vancouver, Moncton, the UK and Japan. www.kaeja.org

Karen Kaeja - choreographer Crave (Kaeja d'Dance) Karen Kaeja is a performer for stage and film, choreographer, educator and project instigator. She is Co-Artistic Director of Kaeja d'Dance with Allen Kaeja and Cloud 9 with Claudia Moore. She thrives on developing performance platforms that provoke collaborative relationships between the body and the everyday, bridging professionals and non-dancers that integrate public participation through community and participatory arts practices. "The mastermind behind Porch View Dances" (Toronto Star), her awards include the Canadian Dance Assembly's (CDA) "I Love Dance" Community Award and the Paul D. Fleck Fellowship for Innovation. Distinguished in Canadian Who's Who, Karen's nominations include a performance Dora, the American Choreography Award and Banff World Television Award. She was a finalist for the CDA Innovation Award, NOW Magazine's Best Local Choreographer and Best Dance Company. Commissioned and presented by performance series around the world, she was the first resident dance artist for MUN/Dance NL and the Guelph Contemporary Dance Festival. She teaches at the School of Toronto Dance Theatre and internationally. Recent engagements and commissions include The Edge - UK (Euro tour), lifeDUETs at Vancouver International Dance Festival, Yokohama Ballet Intensive (Japan) and Downtown Dances (Moncton). www.kaeja.org

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