Kaeja d’Dance’s beloved Porch View Dances will return to Toronto’s Seaton Village for a 13th season from July 17 to 21, 2024. Porch View Dances presents exactly that – dances that are performed on a series of porches through the historic neighbourhood.
Based on a concept by Karen Kaeja, and developed by Karen and Allen Kaeja, ‘real people dances in real spaces’ was launched in 2012. While the individual works are created by choreographers and professional dancers, the performances engage with the families in each home, non-professionals who may never have danced before.
Audiences travel through the neighbourhood as the performances take place from porch to porch and front lawn. The journey ends at a local park, where everyone is invited to dance. Toronto dancemakers, including Sid Ryan Eilers, Fer Camacho, and Zita Nyarady, have created new works for this year’s event.
The theme for this year’s PVD is play, and we spoke with curator Mayumi Lashbrook about putting the unique show together.
A highlight reel from Porch View Dances 2023:
Mayumi Lashbrook, curator: The Interview
Japanese Canadian dancer and choreographer Mayumi Lashbrook is focused on creating innovative works that look to expose and rectify systems of oppression via connections and commonality.
What does she look for in putting together the 60-minute event?
“I looked for a couple of different thing,” Mayumi says, “I was really interested in a through-line, a theme, what brings these pieces together.” Today’s corrosive social climate played a role in determining the theme. “What I saw very quickly in the pieces that were proposed was a sense of joy and play,” she explains. “That sense of play felt very relevant today.”
Theme: Play
The choreographers involved also had prior experience creating dance works for non-dancers to perform. “They were interested in engaging with people in the joy of dance.”
The works they create reach out to the audience, even as they tell the stories of the people who live the houses. Site specific works invite the community to participate.
“They were looking beyond, how do I use the stage?” Mayumi says. It goes to how the bodies move through each unique space.
“Theme was a huge one for me,” she explains “The key word for me was play.” The idea came out of a review of the proposals, a recurring theme that she noticed.
It’s a kind of aftermath of the isolation of the pandemic, and learning to re-engage with each other. It’s a playful way of finding common ground.
The neighbourhood itself becomes part of the process as well as the performances as she began to make connections with the homeowners and other neighbours along the streets of the area. “It’s a great neighbourhood,” Mayumi says. “Part of that is the architecture.”
The Performances
Dancemaker Esie Mensah has choreographed the short vignettes that lead the audience from one porch to another. Her work, dancing with Rose-Mary Harbans, draws on the idea of sharing knowledge, and intergenerational connections.
Host Kunji Ikeda will lead the group from space to space. “He’s such an entertainer,” Mayumi says. “He will delight audiences no matter what.” His character, as she describes it, is a hard-edged personality at the start of the show, but as he begins to see the connections throughout the neighbourhood, he softens, and realizes it’s a place worth saving. It’s a narrative arc that develops as the show progresses.
“We start with Sid Ryan Eilers group.” Eilers has partnered with Canada’s National Ballet School in creating a movement dance class for gender non-conforming/fluid children. “He’s really looking at gender-non-conforming oppression. When people live in oppressed bodies, it’s very impactful to move freely in them.” Three families come together in a joyous celebration of life and its diversity.
Mexican Canadian artist and recent immigrant Fer Camacho studied childhood games to create their work. “They were really interested in the thought of universal play,” Mayumi says.
“We finish the night with Zita Nyaraty,” Mayumi explains. Zita’s work blends dance and clown work in a family-friendly performance. As one clown performs, two more “gather data” on the ensuing laughter.
That’s not all to the experience, however. There will be surprises, including a physical installation piece, storytelling and more.
“That brings us to the Flock Landing and the final resting place of our festival,” she says. Flock Landing is in Vermont Square Park, in the heart of Seaton Village.
“Porch View Dances is such a heartwarming experience that I’m proud to be part of.”
- Porch View Dances 2024 starts at 7 p.m. each evening from July 17 to 21; find out more [HERE].
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