Karen Kaeja

Karen Kaeja is a choreographer and performer for stage and film based in Toronto. She has been the co-artistic director of Kaeja d’Dance with her husband Allen Kaeja since 1990. In 2012, Kaeja conceived the community-based performance series Porch View Dancesin Toronto's Seaton Village neighbourhood.

Kaeja is an HBFA graduate at York University where she initiated the first dance therapy program at Baycrest Hospital.

Kaeja was appointed as Memorial University/Dance NFLD's first dancer-in-residence (2014) for 6 weeks of creation and teaching, and the first Artist in Residence at the Guelph Dance Festival (2012). She has been presented by dancers, festivals, and performance series nationally and internationally including the Canada Dance Festival, Guelph Contemporary Dance Fest, Banff residency, LiveArts, Dancing On The Edge, Harbourfront Centre, Tangente, L’agora, Vancouver East Cultural Centre, Yukon Arts Centre, Dusk Dances, Ottawa Dance Directives (ODD), Older and Reckless and DanceWorks.

Past commissions include the Toronto Outdoor Art Fair, EDge Dance company (UK with 4 mos European tour), Judith Thompson’s Rare Theatre, School of Toronto Dance Theatre, Sylvie Bouchard/BoucharDanse, MOCEAN, Water Sources, Canadian Contemporary Dance Theatre, George Brown Dance, Jasmyn Fyffe, plus commissions and touring to India, Sweden, Venezuela, Mexico, Spain, Portugal, Israel, England, Europe, the US and across Canada. She was a choreographer for the Banff Centre Creative Gesture Lab 2018.

Celebrated as “one of this country’s top ten dance artists” and “a champion of contact dance" (NOW mag), Karen is "one of Toronto’s top Improvisers" (Toronto Life). She has danced in hundreds of performances including Allen Kaeja, Marie-Josée Chartier, Claudia Moore, Kathleen Rea, Peter Bingham, Jessica Runge, Randy Glynn, Denise Fujiwara, Maxine Heppner, Holly Small, Tedd Robinson, Benjamin Kamino, Lina Cruz, DA Hoskins and Susie Burpee and Noemie Lafrance’s Dérives at the Bentway in 2019.

Among her acclaimed stage works are Crave (“absolutely haunting”- Globe and Mail), (“Beautiful, vibrant and emotional.”- Palabra, Mexico), Eugene Walks with Grace, Uncover (“real substance, choreographic intelligence and nuanced, layered meaning” – Toronto Star) and Taxi! (whimsical and poignant, cheeky and sexy – Life with more Cowbell). At the forefront of community and participatory arts practices with a reference to ‘real people dancing in real spaces’ she is “exploding barriers between art and life” Toronto Star. She has instigated award-winning projects that bridge professionals and non-dancers through conceiving large-scale site-specific performances that integrate public participation. She has worked with thousands of people in performance creation.

Her awards include the 2012 Canadian Dance Assembly “I Love Dance” Community Award for her invention of Porch View Dances which is annual since 2012 (PVD), Moving Pictures Best Performance and the Paul D. Fleck Fellowship for innovation. A 7-time Dora Mavor Moore nominee, her work Crave received 4 Dora nominations, winning for Outstanding Male Performance. A finalist for the TAF Muriel Sherrin Award, Karen has twice been named one of NOW magazine’s top-10 dance artists. Her nominations also include NFLD’s ACE award for her MUN/Dance NL 2014 residency, and with Allen - the American Choreography Awards, Banff World Television Awards, TD Arts Diversity Award, Canadian Dance Assembly “I Love Dance” Innovation Award, and runner-up for NOW Magazine’s 2011 Best Local Choreographers and 2015 Best Dance Company. PVD was hailed by The Globe and Mail’s Best Dance of 2012 and won the King East Neighbourhood AWARD-Kitchener, for Community Engagement. Karen Karen is the recent recipient of the 2019 Lifetime Achievement Award from Dance Ontario.