As of July28, there are 26 people registered for this Intensive. There are 9 spots available.
‘Risk, play, enquire and investigate the art of flying’
5 day Intensive with Allen and Karen Kaeja, Aug10-16, 2014. Arrive on Sunday Aug10 for orientation. First class in Monday morning. 2 classes per day with evening discussion or warm-up or video presentation prior to the jam. Last class is Friday Aug15. The last jam if Friday night. This intensives ends after breakfast on Saturday Aug16. $425 includes tuition, all meals, camping, sauna, and pick-up from the Lasqueti ferry. 
We will envelope acts of sensorial freedom of movement and the delight of elevation. The relative ease we can find when we surrender to sensation, image and action will become obvious as we experience the route from centre to floor to flight. Twenty years of development of Kaeja Elevations will also lend a hand to learning about kinetic propulsion, harnessing momentum and the articulation of aerial work.
photo by Zhenya Cerneacov
Dancing with and without a partner, we will witness, engage, inspire and learn from one another. Within the context of full body engagement, fine-tuning our impulses and responding with acute awareness, we’ll immerse ourselves in personal and shared dances.
Mornings will consist of gentle, fluid ways of preparing the body so that we are juicy and open with our full attention and physical beings.
photo by Jorg Wiesner
Afternoons will move into flying and deeper physicality with some collaborating and co-authoring ways of advancing structures to enhance and animate our dances.
Together, Karen and Allen Kaeja have been harnessing and honing contact informed principles for 30 years, propelling their work around the world. Their partnering approach and instincts for practicing and teaching has been celebrated by festivals and institutions and been commissioned by dance companies and broadcasters. They are on faculty at Ryerson University, Brock University and the School of the Toronto Dance Theatre.
“Allen and Karen Kaeja rank amongst the best authorities in Canada in contact improvisation. Their partnering work is inspiring to watch and, as teachers, they bring an incredible expertise, knowledge and energy.” Nadia Potts, Ryerson University, Former Dance Department Chair
“The coolest couple on the dance scene, champions of contact dance.” NOW magazine
Choreographer, Co-Artistic Director, Performer, Educator, Collaborator
Karen Kaeja is a 2009 Dora nominee for Outstanding Performance. Co-artistic director of Kaeja d’Dance with Allen Kaeja, she performs and choreographs for stage and film. Distinguished in 3 Encyclopedia’s -Who’s Who, The Canadian and Theatre Dance in Canada, she is also noted as a “champion of contact dance” (NOW Magazine’s top ten). She has won the Moving Pictures and Paul D. Fleck Awards and was nominated for the 10th Annual American Choreography and the 2006 Banff World Television Awards. Karen has been in creation residencies, commissioned and presented by dancers, festivals and performance series in Sweden, Venezuela, India, Spain, Mexico, Portugal, Israel, Indonesia, England, the US and several Canadian tours including CDF(10 seasons), GCDF(4 seasons), Banff, LiveArts, DOTE, Tangente, L’agora, VECC, Yukon Arts, Dusk Dances (5 seasons and Ontario Tour), CCDT, STDT, and DanceWorks. “One of Toronto’s top Improvisers” (Toronto Life), Karen’s artistry is informed by her solo and duet practice. She has been on faculty at STDT for 24 years and recently, Brock University. She guest teaches across North America including Ryerson U, GCDF, Ontario Annual and Montreal International Contact Festivals. Karen mentors up and coming dance artists and co-founded the improvisational aLOFT Project performing ensemble and the Festival of Interactive Physics (FIP).
photo by Cylla von Tiedemann
A featured performer for Kathleen Rea and Allen Kaeja, she has danced in hundreds of performances created by exceptional dance artists including Marie-Josée Chartier, Claudia Moore, Randy Glynn, Maxine Heppner and Holly Small. Screened in over 400 festivals worldwide, she is a distinct performer in various television documentaries including the Gemini nominated Bravo! Freedom documentary series on Canadian dance and in 19 films for CBC, BRAVO! and Bravo!FACT, garnering international awards and a Gemini nomination for Asylum of Spoons. Her first film as a director, Mika’s Alley toured South America, was chosen for the American Dance Festival and later joined their Screendance Anthology.
With a thirst to bridge public, private and performance art, Karen conceives large-scale performance events that integrate community – BIRD’S EYE VIEW at Casa Loma (“#1 Greatest Hit of Nuit Blanche 2007” Toronto Star) and at the GCDF (2008), Stable Dances at Nuit Blanche 2008 at Casa Loma and Porch View Dances: all of which include community inclusive Flock Landings. Michael Crabb states Karen’s choreography “truly leaves an indelible impression… real substance, choreographic intelligence and nuanced, layered meaning… compact dance that delivers”. Toronto Star
Photo by Cylla Von Tiedemann
Karen and Allen received Canada’s inaugural national 2012 Canadian Dance Assembly (CDA) ‘I Love Dance’ Community Award for Porch View Dances, were finalists for the CDA Innovation Award, NOW magazine’s 2011 Best Local Choreographers and the 2013 TD Arts Diversity Award. They were honoured with the Globe & Mail’s “most moving choreography of 2012, exploring the very essence of what makes us human” for Porch View Dances. Karen was the 2012 Guelph Contemporary Dance Festival‘s first resident artist. She recently premiered Crave and commissions for Flightworks and Pivotal Motion. Karen is CO-AD of the recently launched Cloud 9 with Claudia Moore and Sylvie bouchard, dancing work by Tedd Robinson and Susie Burpee. www.kaeja.org
Choreographer, Film Director, Co-Artistic Director, Performer, Teacher, MA Dance York University
Gemini nominated Director and Award winning Choreographer, Allen Kaeja entered the field of dance after 9 years of wrestling and Judo. Allen’s film, Asylum of Spoons, co-directed with Mark Adam, was also short listed for Jury Prize as well as best direction for an art film at the Banff World Television Awards. Allen’s recent dance film Of the Heart (2008), a Canadian/USA collaboration with Doug Rosenberg, was nominated for the Jury Prize in both New York and Barcelona, Jan 2009. Allen has also been nominated Outstanding Choreography at the American Choreography Awards. Allen is a recipient of the prestigious Paul D. Fleck, Clifford E. Lee, Bonnie Bird (UK), du Maurier Arts Foundation and The K.M. Hunter Choreography Awards as well as a UNESCO citation. Allen has been creating dances since 1982. These include: Armour/Amour (2011) and Norwegian commission-Jericho (2011), Particle Theory (2009), Abattoir (2008), Asylum of Spoons (2004),The Complex (Ballet Jorgen Canada 2003), Earth’s Scent (with Karen Kaeja for Arangam Co. India 2002), Buried Monuments (2002), Fractured Corners (Nemian Dance Co., Mexico 2001), Elements of Touch (with Karen 2001), descent (2001), Resistance (2000), Excavating Ascent (1999), Brutal Calm (1999) and Zummel (NorrDans, Sweden, 1996), Permafrost (London, England, 1998) Courtyard (1997), and the Old Country trilogy (1993 – 1995). For five years, Allen and Kaeja d’Dance toured Resistance through Canada, the United States, and Mexico. Allen’s works have been presented in major festivals and venues across Canada and in 20 countries around the world. He has been included in the Canadian Who’s Who encyclopedia since 2001. His films are in the permanent collections of the MoMA and Jewish Museum, New York and Yad Vashem, Israel.
Photo by Joseph Lalonde
Allen is Co-Artistic Director of Kaeja d’Dance (with life partner Karen Kaeja)and Co-Founder of the CanAsian Dance Festival and the fringe Festival of Independent Dance Artists. For the last decade, Allen and Karen have been on faculty the School of Toronto Dance Theatre and Ryerson University where they teach Contact Dance. The Kaejas’ first book, Express Dance: Educators’ Resource for Teaching Dance, was published in 2000 is widely used as a valuable teaching tool in the school system.
Allen was commissioned to create Jericho (2011), which premiered in Olso, Norway. Allen has choreographed for twenty-six films and co-directed, with Mark Adam, seven award-winning dance films. They include: Witnessed* (1997), Sarah* (1999), Zummel* (1999), Resistance (Bravo! 2001), Departure* (2004), Old Country (CBC 2004) and Asylum of Spoons (2005). Zummel received Best Performance from Moving Pictures (Canada) has been on the IMZ world tour for the past nine years. ‘Departure’ was nominated for the 10th American Choreography Awards for Outstanding Choreography with Karen. Allen & Karen Kaeja are featured in the Gemini winning Freedom documentary series on Bravo! Allen has also performed in 12 dance films, most recently as Pushkin in Moze Mossanen’s Gemini winning Nureyev, which premiered on Bravo!Network (2009).
Allen Kaeja teaches Master classes throughout the world and developed/teaches Canada’s first “hands-on” university dance film course in Canadian history at Ryerson University. He is author of “Transcending Media: Adapting the Dance Production Asylum of Spoons from Stage to Film”: published by LAP, Germany, it is a comprehensive book that details the process of creating a dance film from the Treatment to Screenplay; from Shot List to Storyboard; camera movement to complex shooting schedule.
For more information about Karen and Allen Kaeja go to www.kaeja.org
To register: go to Contact Us on the right side of this page and send us an email including ‘Aug10’ in the subject. If you do not hear back from us in two days, check your junk folder or send another message.
