(Concept, Director, Performer)
Karen Kaeja is an award-winning performer, choreographer, mentor, community builder and project instigator whose work interrogates relational feminine perspectives. “The mastermind behind Porch View Dances” Toronto Star, she develops performance platforms provoking collaborative relationships between dancers, everyday people and the body. Co-Artistic Director of Kaeja d’Dance with Allen Kaeja, her awards include the 2019 Dance Ontario Lifetime Achievement Award, the CDA “I Love Dance” Community Award and the Paul D. Fleck Fellowship for Innovation (Banff). She was a finalist for the 2020 TAF Celebration of Cultural Life Award and the 2017 TAF Muriel Sherrin Award for International achievement. Karen has 7 Dora Mavor Moore nominations, including 4 for Crave (winning outstanding male). “When she dances, her reserve turns into something almost violently intense.” Globe and Mail. Karen is distinguished in The Canadian Who’s Who, and has been nominated for the CDA Innovation Award, NOW’s Best Local Choreographer and twice nominated for NOW’s Best Dance Company. Screened in over 400 festivals worldwide, her choreography and performances have appeared in TV documentary’s, including the Gemini nominated Old Country and Bravo! Freedom documentary series, XTOD: Moments in Real Time and is featured in 20 films for CBC, BRAVO! and Bravo!FACT, garnering international awards. Commissioned and presented by dancers and performance series around the world, including the recent NAC #CanadaPerforms of Fallow, she has created over 70 dance works and continues to dramaturg and perform for many of Canada’s brilliant choreographers. Karen was Stratford Festival’s first movement dramaturg for Wendy and Peter Pan (suspended due to COVID).