CSA Nooner presents Kaeja d'Dance!

This past Wednesday, November 6^th was another successful CSA Nooner! In partnership with the University of Guelph, Kaeja d’Dance performed in the Student Hub of the University Centre. Audiences were captivated by Kaeja d’Dance’s excerpt from their newest piece: X-ODUS, choreographed by Allen Kaeja. Kaeja d’Dance is one of Canada’s longest-standing contemporary dance companies, led by husband and wife duo Allen and Karen Kaeja. They have produced award-winning performances, acclaimed dance films and educational outreach programs. They “break ground, instigate risk and bring together dancers and collaborators to create experiences both on and off the stage … [They are] known for athletic intensity, sensual articulation and theatrical imagery.”

X-ODUS pushes boundaries, leaving the structure of the stage and traditional audience/performer roles behind. “To arrive, one has to leave. Departing has never been so sweet” – Allen Kaeja. The dancers in last week’s performance were Karen Kaeja, Stephanie Tremblay-Abubo, Zhenya Cerneacov, and Meredith Plumb. Allen even appeared in the piece from time-to-time.

As noon was approaching, dancers were warming up, Guelph Dance staff was chatting and meeting new people, and onlookers (students, faculty and many children – for bring your child to work day) were beginning to swarm around the student hub in the University Centre. Once the music began, attention was caught in all directions. The dancers started their piece and students with mouths full of food began to watch. It didn’t take long to captivate and build the audience.

The beat of the music complemented the passion the dancers conveyed. The performance became interactive when 5 volunteers from the audience were brought into the piece. It was hard for the audience to determine whether or not this had been premeditated. The volunteers were chosen only minutes before the performance and didn’t know what was expected of them. They went with the flow and added a new dimension to the piece.

Throughout the majority of the performance Allen Kaeja sat and watched with other audience members. He observed with a smile and an obvious sense of pride. This charismatic choreographer seemed to enjoy every minute he spent in the University Centre that day, as did his dancers. Allen appears to be a great leader to a great team.

Janet Johnson, Guelph Dance’s co-artistic coordinator, said after the performance “Allen and Karen Kaeja are the king and queen of contact improv.”

Overall, an unforgettable experience and great sneak preview to next years Guelph Dance Festival. If you missed this CSA Nooner, there will be another on March 21^st, 2014. Be sure to mark your calendars! 

Shannon Kingsbury Behind the Scenes

As part two in our two-part story of the symbiotic relationship between musician and choreographer, Shannon Kingsbury adds her thoughts—and music—to Sue Smith’s post (below) about working with choreographer Karen Kaeja on the GCDF commissioned piece, Crave to Tell. 

Shannon: It's a crisp February morning and I am at Temple Studios with the Fall On Your Feet Dance Collective and choreographer Karen Kaeja. Karen is creating a piece for the troupe and Sue Smith and I will be writing the accompanying musical score. Today I have come to observe the dance rehearsal to give some context for the music composition. Sue is out of town so I am the lone singer in a room full of gorgeous women dancers. I feel like a voyeur.

We are sitting casually in a circle with notebooks and pens. The theme of the piece to be is “Secrets”.  Karen has a sentence for us to complete: “The most secret place inside of me is..........”

Scribble scribble go the pens. We share our answers. Karen urges us onto our feet to give physical form to our words. I'm not sure what to do. Karen coaxes me to join the dancers. Yikes! The instructions are clear: we are each to create a movement inspired by “the most secret place inside of me”, and then learn each others’ movements sequentially, creating a series.

And GO! Karen creeps along the floor like a wounded crab. The rest of us replicate. Tanya wraps her arms around herself, her right hand guiding her chin upwards. We add Tanya's chin lift onto Karen's crab. Kelly's slender frame spins and withdraws into itself. 3 movements. Now, my turn.

Gulp.

I try not to analyze or agonize since there doesn't seem to be any way out of this! With my secret word in the fore of my mind, I feel my body lunge forward, palm extending out beyond my parameters and then reaching sharply back behind me. The dancers copy. Exhilarating!

Georgia corkscrews down into a “thinking man” position, Lynette clasps her knee to her chest, Janet's wrist flicks and Karen adds a final swirl. I do my best to keep up with the lithe & fluid bodies around me as we move in tandem. I wonder how it is that I can remember thousands of lyrics and musical motifs and yet have trouble with the sequence of 8 relatively simple movements? The dancers cheer me on with their eyes and smiles.

I feel stiff and winded and ask to sit on the side and observe. They are amazing to me—the five of them moving like a flock of birds with Karen at the helm calling out the direction of their flight. The motion of their bodies, the swish of their clothes, the sound of their breath and pattering feet has a hypnotic effect and my lids grow heavy. The dancers become my dream muses and the next thing I know the clock has drifted ahead and they are gathered around me again, sitting casually on the floor as we began.

           

Did I dream it all?

           

Again we take to the pages of our notebooks, this time to complete the sentence “I crave to tell.........” This assignment takes more time than the first. Brows furrow, eyes seem to glaze over with memory. Pens alternate between energetic spurts and thoughtful pauses. We do not share our answers.

Karen instructs the dancers to choose a few words from their writings. She counsels me to observe and listen from the outside. She directs them into a heap on the floor, bodies completely relaxed and breathing as one. “Now, randomly speak your words.”

I grab my pen and record it all down through the lens of my lingering drowsiness. Sometimes their words overlap. Sometimes they assume each other’s words. Sometimes they even finish each other's words. There is a randomly beautiful rhythm and cadence to what arises, even a hint of melody:

“Laugh. Wait. Lie. Truth. Up. Up. Up. Crave. Choices. Causing. Wishing. Heartache. Heart. Wishing. Damage. Oblivious. Up. Up. Up. Living. Wait. Oblivious. Wait. Live. Truth. Laugh. Heart. My Heart. Ache. Causing. Heart. Choices. Causing. Oblivious. Heartache. Damn. Dawn. Laugh. Live.”

A shiver runs down my spine at the conclusion of this spontaneous musical score unknowingly being born. I can hardly wait to share it with Sue.

Shannon Kingsbury is a singer, songwriter, harpist and music educator whose eclectic

performance career has ranged from film soundtrack to stage to studio. Along with Sue Smith,

Shannon is Co-Artistic Director of Ondine Chorus, vocal ensemble, and SKSS Productions,

creating unique multi-discipline performance arts shows in support of environmental and

social causes.

www.shannonkingsbury.com

Sue Smith on Creating Music for Dance

We asked Sue Smith to tell us about her experience working with choreographer Karen Kaeja and fellow vocal artist Shannon Kingsbury on Crave to Tell, the piece the GCDF commissioned for Women's Voices.

Sue Smith

Sue: Working with Karen Kaeja is a most inspiring process. Working with Shannon Kingsbury is a delight. Together, the three of us are collaborating to weave together music and dance—newly found, original, moving, held, telling.

When the three us met up on a cold December morning, Karen introduced us to her concept for the piece—the exploration of secrets.  She asked us, “What secrets do you crave to tell?”   

Think about that for a minute and you will likely find yourself on an intense personal journey. We talked about the impact of secrets on our lives, generational secrets, how secrets were revealed, when we shared secrets, when we were implored not to tell—and thereby put into the arduous position of carrying a burden of knowledge.  Being alone with a secret.  Oh, the responsibility.  Oh, the emotional work.  Oh, the musical work; the privilege of taking these ideas and transforming them into musical expressions.

The exploration of the theme was a gold mine of sorts,  eliciting many ideas and avenues for musical expression. Along the way, Shannon and I composed musical elements and created structures for improvisation, knowing we would be working with an “orchestra” of 5 female voices. Singing with Louisa Kratka, Monique Vischrschraper, and Mosa McNeilly, our rehearsals have been a combination of  learning set pieces written by Shannon and me as well as improvisational explorations in which the uniqueness of each voice intermingles, responds, cajoles, soothes, harmonizes and blends with the group, creating one-of-a-kind moments and bringing forth music that could never have been born from a page or a solitary composer; a deeply satisfying musical communication.

The process of creating music for dance is fluid and conversational.  Having worked with Karen previously on the scores for “Wedding Threads”,  “Cold Beneath Me” and “Hangman”, I was confident in our process together. Karen creates a magnificent yet delicately held container in which to work—and into which she welcomes the fire of ideas and possibility. Shannon and I observed, created, responded, and contributed ideas, music, and voice, which Karen took into her process with the dancers.

Shannon Kingsbury and Sue Smith at work

The back and forth of:  “Look at this; listen to this; I LOVE IT!;  try this;  what about silence?; more energy required here; I LOVE IT;  a softer approach here; watch for the moving yoga tree,  wait for Kelly’s hand”, intermingle as the ideas grow and take shape and colour. Witnessing the dancers moving to our newly created musical pieces is a marvel—I think I am the luckiest person in the world to be able to do this work.

The absolute inspiration of observing Karen and the dancers at work gives me energy for months to come. Working with Shannon is always an enriching musical experience empowered by wonderful commitment and the ever-present twinkle in her eye. The dedication, artistry and communication that fill the studio during rehearsal is an elixir that moves us all.                                                                                                        

Sue Smith is a singer, musician, composer, and dancer and has performed on stage, on camera, and in the studio as a soloist and collaborator.  27 years ago Sue had the good sense to co-found Hillside Festival and is the founder, Artistic Director, and General Manager of the Season Singers. She has scored several pieces for Karen Kaeja, and has performed with Robert Kingsbury. She is a dedicated music educator, maintaining a vibrant teaching studio in Guelph and Toronto. 

www.suesmith.ca

Karen Kaeja on Creating Her Latest Work

Karen Kaeja is currently at work creating Crave to Tell, a piece commissioned by the GCDF for the upcoming Women’s Voices performance.

Karen: There are no two better places to be than in the studio and in Guelph. I am truly in my element here. I love the pre-rehearsal anticipation. Each day that my wheels slick the pavement from Toronto to Quebec Street I feel the excitement begin to percolate through my body as if it is attuning to the calling of the work (preparation happens in the most unusual ways!). I walk up the stairs into the studio and it’s like a charge of lighting drops in, the fire ignites.

On the first day while the dancers were shifting through their stretching and warming and settling, I observed them. I get so much information from all of these nuances and initial interactions. Our initial time together fuels my continuum. I am not a choreographer with a routine of how I hit the deck. Each creation is a new possibility and I really do not know where it might go or what it might end up being. Sometimes I come in with a seed of curiosity that I will be inspired from but it may not stick and I secretly hope it does not. This allows me the freedom to follow a thread or many threads until the work finds its voice. In some way there ends up being an indirect link to my initial imaginings.

Shannon, Sue and I got together in Toronto before embarking on rehearsals with FOYF. I exposed my focus this year, which is based on secrets, and we were off to the races. It was a fully fueled conversation and enough to last for hours and hours of exploration.

My current inquiry of secrets kept and secrets shared is what I am stimulated by in this work. It is too tall an order for a short process such as this but it could become a long chapter of work in my life. All the pieces I am making this year share an element of this indirectly. The pressure to pair down the vastness of the exploration kept haunting me while I tried to be open to intuitive meanderings. My goal was to create a work that fits the dancers, one that is really of them and for them. Curious to discover in the body how and where secrets lay, how they affect our behaviour and how they shape our lives, witnessing such treasures of mystery and enchantment bring subtle and bold points of departure. I asked the dancers to only bring in secrets that they were ready and interested in sharing, and nothing that they could not depart with. We created a safe space to be with each other in the process, I hope! Some of the secrets became physical or vocal source material.

FOYF members have an obviously strong connection and this helped me understand its potential right away. I have treasured the amount of input and full on commitment the dancers have given me. I am a lucky woman!

Collaborating with Sue and Shannon has been beyond a dream. It has been an extremely ‘cooking’ relationship, very inspiring. Last night we began a creative session at 9:45pm and when we were too tired to go on at 12:15am, I suggested a little idea of mixing some of the dancers words in sung phrases and they could not help themselves but to go at it. They are a truly amazing team and boundless in ideas and tenacity. I love this way of working – incubating in the oven together.

Questions I ask to myself these days during creative process are: How do I mine something to become uncomfortable? How do I deal with my discomfort? How does the dancer’s discomfort or excitement affect my next choice? How do I fuel it with smell, taste, touch, and an everyday life palette of feelings, exactitude, perseverance and incubated expression? These questions may or may not be transmitted or dealt with, but they linger during my current existence.

I take pleasure in the intuitive and unknown nature of that which can never be exactly repeated. I never feel like I progress, but I feel different each time I create.

Being familiar with Guelph, through many visits and inclusions in the festival, I feel very welcome here. I have a long time friendship and professional relationship with many artists in the community here. I really feel like it is a 2nd home to me artistically and beyond!

Karen Kaeja of Kaeja d’Dance is a 2009 Dora performance nominee. She is included in The Canadian Encyclopedia, The Canadian Who's Who, and Theatre Dance Encyclopedia in Canada and has won performance awards from Moving Pictures, the Paul D. Fleck Fellowship as one of Canada’s innovative artists of excellence, with nominations for the 10th Annual American Choreography Awards and the 2006 Banff World Television Awards. Noted in NOW magazine as “one of the country’s best dance artists”, her career as a performer, teacher, and creator spans ten countries and exceeds 17 internationally award-winning dance films at over 400 festivals.

On Thursday, March 8^th, 2012, and in celebration of International Women’s Day, the Guelph Fab 5 is proud to present Women’s Voices. This fabulous event will take place at 7pm at John F. Ross, E.L. Fox Auditorium, 21 Meyer Drive, Guelph. Tickets can be purchased at the door and all proceeds will go to Guelph-Wellington Women in Crisis. After the show, we invite you to join us for a reception.  

Lynette Segal on Working with Karen Kaeja

Members of Fall on Your Feet Collective are working with Karen Kaeja in the creation of a new piece commissioned by the Guelph Contemporary Dance Festival for Women's Voices 2012.

Lynette: Gearing up to work with Karen came on the heels of spending a week in Toronto analyzing the mechanics of Kaeja Elevations, partnering work that Karen and Allen Kaeja developed over the last thirty years as part of their vast movement vocabulary—where contact improvisation and contemporary dance exquisitely coalesce.  

Rehearsal with Karen Kaeja

Despite the modest time-frame of roughly 32 hours to create a 15-minute piece with five dancers from Guelph's own Fall on Your Feet, the process is immensely creative and inspiring.  Imbuing moments of tender intimacy, as a mother to her child, or a daughter to her aging parent, Karen works her magic by continually remixing and adding her voice to the movement vocabulary derived from short phrases which the dancers created.  Solo, duet and group forms weave into the fabric of what will become Karen's choreographic contribution to Women's Voices. 

Over the many years I've known Karen, she has maintained her master status as one of the most articulate and captivating dance improvisers in Canada.  Working with her again has been an absolute honour and delight.  I am joined by champions Janet Johnson, Kelly Steadman, Georgia Simms, and Tanya Williams of Fall on Your Feet and gifted local music artists, Shannon Kingsbury and Sue Smith, in another wonderfully creative occasion in this vibrant community of ours.  Looking forward to seeing you there!

Thoroughly blessed by the tremendous community we call Guelph, Lynette Segal brought the founding members of Fall on Your Feet together to provide collaborative improvisational opportunities. Recently appointed treasurer for the Guelph Contemporary Dance Festival and in her third year as a board member, Lynette has been informed by her work of 17 years as a Massage Therapist, and also volunteers for Hospice Wellington.  

On Thursday, March 8^th, 2012, and in celebration of International Women’s Day, the Guelph Fab 5 is proud to present Women’s Voices. This fabulous event will take place at 7pm at John F. Ross, E.L. Fox Auditorium, 21 Meyer Drive, Guelph. Tickets can be purchased at the door and all proceeds will go to Guelph-Wellington Women in Crisis. After the show, we invite you to join us for a reception.  

Getting Ready to celebrate Women’s Voices

Janet: Women’s Voices is the Guelph Contemporary Dance Festival’s way of doing our small part in honouring and celebrating women on International Women’s Day. It is an event that encourages a sense of solidarity amongst our community of vibrant women, women facing challenges, and those who come in support of this important day.  On a local note, it is our intention that Women's Voices not only acts as a medium for focus and support of women, but that all proceeds go to Guelph-Wellington Women in Crisis.

This year we’re partnering with the Guelph Fab 5, five Guelph-centered performing arts festivals that are committed to enhancing our community and which share a core belief in innovation, that the arts can change the world, and that education is a fundamental activity.

People of all ages will be uplifted by the power of our community to come together and produce great moments of artistic expression, reveal poignant elements of humanity, and find great solidarity in shared effort.  

Women's Voices is for those who believe in the ever-necessary change that needs to occur all over the world for women seeking equality, safety, and expression.  It is a fantastic event for bringing this awareness to our community by means of artistic expression.

We are thrilled that this year we will be featuring not only dance but music and film.  The performers will range from 12-years-old to adult and beyond!  The featured artistic works will be:  Fall on Your Feet performing a new work by Toronto dance icon, Karen Kaeja;

Karen Kaeja. Photo by Ella Cooper

Guelph's dazzling Robert Kingsbury’s premiere of a brand new work with newly-arrived-to-Guelph-from-Montreal dancer, Katie Ewald;

Robert Kingsbury

and born-and-raised-in-Guelph dancer/choreographer/teacher Kelly Steadman who will mount a beautiful work with Guelph's finest youth dancers.  

Choreography by Kelly Steadman

The Hillside Festival will be featuring a youth musician from their Girls and Guitars series. The Guelph Jazz Festival has put forward clarinetist, Tilly Kooyman, and the Festival of Moving Media has offered up a film entitled "Flawed" for this event.  

 

Women's Voices is accessible for all those interested and hopes to encourage a multi-generational, eclectic group of eager community members keen on the colours and hues which depict the vast arena of women!

Women’s Voices will take place at 7pm at John F. Ross, E.L. Fox Auditorium, 21 Meyer Drive, Guelph. Tickets can be purchased at the door and all proceeds will go to Guelph-Wellington Women in Crisis. After the show, we invite you to join us for a reception.