Kaeja D'Dance Presents 7th Annual Porch View Dances - Inclusive Stories Told Through Dance

Kaeja d'Dance proudly presents the beloved award-winning 7th annual PORCH VIEW DANCES (PVD), a unique and family friendly on-site production that showcases real people dancing in real spaces. This year, PVD is all about inclusivity, and will have a strong focus on diversity in dance creation and performance, with individuals from all backgrounds, ages, and featuring participants with multi-abilities. The Launch of PVD 2018 sets in motion a more accessible and inclusive event for both participants and audience members, that will pave the way for Kaeja's future events. The performance runs from July 18 to July 22, 2018, in Seaton Village, part of the Annex of Toronto. www.kaeja.org/pvd2018  

"I love that through our common language of movement, we have this intimate and focused experience together that serves the day and the dance and continues the story. PVD is like this social dance journey where I get to witness lives lived in all their rough and tumbleness, and always, something beautiful flows out of the front door!" - Karen Kaeja, co-artistic director, Kaeja d'Dance

PVD is a community dance festival that engages everyday people as creators, storytellers, and performers. PVD will take audiences on a walking tour of Seaton Village in the Annex of Toronto, to witness new dance works created by professional choreographers. This year, for the very first time, Seaton Village becomes the venue, hosting participants from all over Toronto on the porches and lawns of the neighbourhood. During the event finale, audience members have the opportunity to become active participants themselves, as they are invited to join the Flock Landing, a large participatory dance experience that is 100% accessible to all ages and abilities. Porch View Dances was conceived by Karen Kaeja and developed with Allen Kaeja.

ANNOUNCING OUR 2018 PARTICIPANTS!

PORCH 1
Choreographed by Kathleen Rea
A team of participants who come from neighbourhoods from across Toronto. This group of performers with diverse abilities will unite in their shared love of movement, dance, and community, bringing their various talents to the table, including: yoga, wheelchair dance, aerial circus, and contact dance.

PORCH 2
Choreographed by Andrea Nann with Michelle Silagy
Four housemates with multi-exceptionalities who love dancing together. They believe creativity should have no physical boundaries and restrictions.

PORCH 3
Choreographed by Karen and Allen Kaeja
Jim and Owen Adams are an Indigenous father/son team who are on Year 2 of a PVD series exploring teachings from the Medicine Wheel. This year's theme will focus on the father/son relationship that embodies the Indigenous values of truth, love and respect.

PVD choreographers include Co-Artistic Directors of Kaeja d'Dance, Karen Kaeja and Allen Kaeja. Karen Kaeja is an award-winning performer for stage and film, choreographer, educator, community builder, and project instigator. Her awards include the "I Love Dance" Community Award and the Paul D. Fleck Fellowship for Innovation. She is a 5-time Dora Mavor Moore nominee for Choreography and Performance, including 4 Dora's for Crave which won one. Distinguished in The Canadian Who's Who, Karen was a finalist for the TAF Muriel Sherrin Award for International achievement in dance, CDA Innovation Award, NOW Magazine's Best Local Choreographer and Best Dance Company. She was the inaugural dance artist in residence for the Guelph Dance Festival and Dance NL/MUN.

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 was runner up for 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 numerous national and international commissions, and teaches Kaeja Elevations and Dance Film master classes worldwide. Allen's awards include the prestigious Clifford E. Lee, K.M. Hunter, Paul D. Fleck Fellowship, the Bonnie Bird, a UNESCO citation, the Moving Picture Award for best performance, and the Katheryn Ash Award. Allen was also recently nominated for the Ontario's Arts Education Award.

This year's choreographers include Kathleen Rea, who has danced with Canada's Ballet Jörgen Canada, National Ballet of Canada & Tiroler Landes theater (Austria), has choreographed over 40 dance works, and been nominated for five DORA awards. Kathleen is also a recipient of a K. M. Hunter Choreographic Award. Andrea Nann, a recipient of six Dora Mavor Moore award nominations, is founding artistic director of Dreamwalker Dance Company, and was a full-time member of the Danny Grossman Dance Company from 1988-2003. Michelle Silagy is a Toronto based contemporary dance artist and educator. Her work has been presented in Amsterdam, New York, the Arctic Circle, and in several indoor and outdoor venues in Toronto. Pulga Muchochoma (Vignette Choreographer), whose dance career and training began in Quelimane with Montes Namuli Dance Company, currently works with Toronto Dance Theatre, and is the creator and the founder of African Dance and Fitness with Pulga.

ABOUT KAEJA d'DANCE
Kaeja d'Dance is an award-winning contemporary dance company known for innovation, choreography, performance, outreach, site-specific work, and groundbreaking community engagement projects. They thrive on developing professional performance platforms, collaborations with partners, peers and performers of all ages and abilities, while aiming to bridge the gap between professional artists and everyday people.

At the heart of Kaeja, are co-Artistic Directors, Karen and Allen Kaeja, with over 140 works including commissions and performances, both here in Canada and abroad. Karen and Allen's signature aesthetic is known for its intimacy, athletic intensity, sensual articulation, theatrical imagery, and story-telling through personal and artistic resourcing of lives lived.

PORCH VIEW DANCES:
When: July 18-22, 2018 (Wednesday to Saturday at 7pm, and Sunday at 1pm)
Where: Starts at 595 Palmerston Ave.
Price: Pay-What-You-Want

 

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