Review: Porch View Dances (Kaeja d’Dance)

Photo of Amarai, Leslie and Lori Endes by Shana Hillman

Site-specific dance show brings performance to Toronto’s front porches

Site-specific shows don’t get more specific than the front porches of your friends and neighbours. That’s the idea behind Porch View Dances, a series of short contemporary dance works developed by Karen and Allen Kaeja of Kaeja d’Dance: it enlists community members and their porches and front lawns, the public-facing aspect of their living spaces.

These brave neighbourhood volunteers perform choreography by professional dance artists. Now in its fourth year, the award-winning show has branched out to Ottawa, Kitchener, and Moncton. It’s very approachable, being run by donation, and takes the audience on a charming walking tour through Seaton Village, a cosy neighbourhood just steps from busy Bathurst and Bloor.

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Radio Project and Until Tender-Crisp II (Erin Hill/ hog wild dance)

Choreographer Erin Hill does a fine job turning complex scientific inspiration into art in Radio Project, playing with Until Tender Crisp II as a part of the SummerWorks Dance series. Narrated and deejayed in the form of a radio show by Hill, the piece for two dancers merged scenes evoking the nostalgia of listening to the radio with choreography that mirrored the movement of the invisible but ubiquitous sound waves that surrounds us.

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Street vs. Stage (Tina Fushell/Molly Johnson/Emily Law/Sabina Perry) 2015 SummerWorks Review

Photo of Street versus Stage

Using two different styles of dance can open up a whole new understanding of movement for an audience. In Street vs. Stage playing at the Factory Theatre Mainspace as part of the 2015 Toronto SummerWorks Festival, producers Tina Fushell, Molly Johnson, Emily Law, and Sabina Perry deliver the joy of dance with a collection of incredible dancers.

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A Wake for Lost Time ([elephants] collective) 2015 SummerWorks Review

A Wake for Lost Time SummerWorks

Time is many things. It’s fluid. It’s infinite. And it’s the one thing we all wish we had more of. A Wake for Lost Time, playing as part of this year’s Summerworks Festival Live Art series, is a non-stop, multi-disciplinary performance that explores the question: what is time really worth?

The material consists of approximately 2.5 hours’ worth of various vignettes, which are looped over and over throughout a 24-hour period. It’s an interesting experiment that studies how the physical and mental state of an actor can completely dictate the method and mood of how a  narrative unfolds.

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