Saturday night was a 20 year celebration of Kaeja d'Dance, a contemporary dance company run by Allen and Karen Kaeja, in a show called 20/20 Vision at the Enwave Theatre down at Harbourfront. Although it was a celebration, it was not a retrospective. All pieces were either recent, a World premiere, or a North American Premiere.
The Visitor (World premiere, Karen Kaeja) started the evening. A solo piece danced by Stephanie Tremblay Abubo. I had last seen this dancer at Momentum 2010, a student dance showcase of the Toronto School of Dance Theatre. It looks like she has found a footing in the professional dance world. I remember her strong jumps and leaps. However, she stayed mostly on the ground, prowling around her apartment. From her movements, it was clear she was a woman either in the throes of sexual frustration, or at least anxiously, and eagerly, awaiting a guest. More of a performance piece than dance in my mind, it went on a bit too long, like all the pieces. Also, a tendency to inject rapid, twitchy, Tourette-like movements seems to infect all Toronto School of Dance dancers and choreographers. It's not a vocabulary that I understand or enjoy.
Quenched (2010, Karen Kaeja) was a more conventional piece from Cadence Ballet. 2 lovers, Zhenya Cerneacov who first appears on stage balancing a large beach umbrella on his chin, and Courtnae Bowman go through the standard ritual of relatiohships: shy glances, giddy first encounters, and proceeding to familial contempt and long-term apathy. Props (no pun intended) to the dancers for incorporating the umbrella in some of their exchanges. They also demonstrated some of the vocabulary of Kaeja d'Dance, a style of contemporary dance called contact improvisation. In this case, a constant touching of limbs and bodies. It was a fun piece though there wasn't much deeper idea to it.
Jericho (North American Premiere, Allen Kaeja) was created for Ut i Scenekunsten. This Oslo group, composed of Stian Danielsen, Catharina Vehre Gresslien, Irene Theisen, Nasser Mhende, and Ratih Windrati, came from Norway for this recital. Fast-moving, quick, and very athletic, they also demonstrated other aspects of contact improvisation including effortless lifts. The style shown here is called Kaeja Elevations. These lifts involve less arm and upper body strengths because there are few holds, the dancer is assisted through their jump or movement by the base dancer based on pivot points and entire body supported. This gave the lifts a weightlessness and smoothness that were interestingly different from classical dance. Also, it allowed both men and women to assist their partners, creating exciting dynamics. My only complaint was that the troupe "front-loaded" their jumps into the first 3-4 minutes in frenetic choreography involving all 5 dancers. I would have liked to see these elevations interspersed throughout the piece, especially when only 2 or 3 dancers were involved.
Armour/Amour (World Premiere, Allen Kaeja) was less vigorous than the previous pieces, especially Jericho, but more profound. In the dance, Karen was often filmed, either by herself or by another, younger dancer (Mairead Filgate). These videos were shown onto the back of the stage, either in real-time or from pre-recorded segments. The front lighting also projected the dancers' shadows onto the images. All these versions of Karen and Mairead reacted to each other and also to the shadows and images: sometimes dancing in a kind of pseudo-duet, quartet, or even group format, sometimes mimicking movements, and even recoiling or running away. The two dancers seemed to be fascinated with each other, too. Mairead treated Karen with a kind of contemptuous condescension, while the older dancers kept touching her younger counterpart with yearning and longing. Why were they dressed identically? Was Mairead a protege or a youthful rival? Or was Karen chasing the memory of her younger days and regretting inevitable age and decline? This was an intriguing piece of dance and multimedia.
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