Allen Kaeja

Allen Kaeja

BIOGRAPHIE

Gemini nominated Director and Award-Winning Choreographer, Allen Kaeja entered the field of dance after 9 years of wrestling and Judo. The child of a refugee and Holocaust survivor, Allen was invited in 1981 by the Ontario Olympic Wrestling Federation to compete for “the team,” he chose dance as his career instead. Allen’s film, Asylum of Spoons, co-directed with Mark Adam, was short listed for Jury Prize as well as best direction for an art film at the Banff World Television Awards. Allen’s dance film Zummel has just been selected for Regards Hybrides' Collection, the preeminent Canadian film collection and was part of a MUSÉES DE LA CIVILISATION exhibit Rebel Bodies. His dance film Of the Heart a Canadian/USA collaboration with Doug Rosenberg, was nominated for the Jury Prize in both New York and Barcelona, and has recently screened at Sans Souci Festival and He has received special ‘Jury Mentions’ from IMZ (Europe) and American Dance Festival (USA), Allen has also been nominated Outstanding Choreography at the for the dance film “Departure” at the American Choreography Awards. Allen is a recipient of the prestigious Paul D. Fleck, Clifford E. Lee, Bonnie Bird (UK), du Maurier Arts Foundation and The K.M. Hunter Choreography Awards as well as a UNESCO citation (2001). His dance films have been presented in major festivals and venues across Canada and in 20 countries around the world. He has been included in the Canadian Who’s Who encyclopedia since 2001. His films are in the permanent collections of the MoMA and Jewish Museum, New York and Yad Vashem, Israel. Allen is Co-Artistic Director of Kaeja d’Dance (with his wife Karen Kaeja) and Co-Founder of the CanAsian Dance Festival and the fringe Festival of Independent Dance Artists. For the last fifteen years, Allen has been on faculty at Ryerson University where he teaches Dance Film (since 2008). Allen Kaeja has choreographed for thirty-five films, produced or co-produce twenty-three of these films and co-directed, with Mark Adam, seven award-winning dance films. They include: Witnessed* (1997), Sarah* (1999), Zummel* (1999), Resistance (Bravo! 2001), Departure* (2004), Old Country (CBC 2004) and Asylum of Spoons (2005). Zummel received Best Performance from Moving Pictures (Canada) was on the IMZ world tour for ten years. ‘Departure’ was nominated for the 10th American Choreography Awards for Outstanding Choreography with Karen. Allen & Karen Kaeja are featured in the Gemini winning Freedom documentary series on Bravo! Allen has also performed in 12 dance films, most recently as Pushkin in Moze Mossanen’s Gemini winning Nureyev, which premiered on Bravo!Network (2009). 1n 2017, Allen has completed “Xtraordinary TO Dances: Moments in Reel Time” (2017) for broadcasters BellMedia (Canada) and Marqueearts (UK) starring 22 Toronto based dance artists with composers Phil Strong and Eric Cadesky which premiered at Karen’s Solo Dance Xchange (2018). XTOD featured 22 XTRAORDINARY Toronto Dance Artists representing the intergenerational, multi-practice and mosaic of our dance community, on location throughout Metropolitan Toronto. XTOD has been screened in the USA, Europe and Japan and was recently shortlisted for the Jury Prize: XTOD: Moments in Reel Time; Best film over 15 minutes – IMZ, Europe Allen and Karen have created and shot two livestream films over the pandemic: FALLOW for the National Arts Centre, “blue renew” for Porch View Dances. Allen Kaeja teaches Master dance film classes throughout the world and developed/teaches Canada’s first “hands-on” university dance film course in Canadian history at Ryerson University. He is author of “Transcending Media: Adapting the Dance Production Asylum of Spoons from Stage to Film”: published by LAP, Germany, it is a comprehensive book that details the process of creating a dance film from the Treatment to Screenplay; from Shot List to Storyboard; camera movement to complex shooting schedule. Allen and Karen have created and shot two new films: between sun and sand; between snow and sky. Allen received a Canada Council Digital Originals grant to shoot FALLOW; as a short 4K film reimagined, which has screened internationally. He also directed four dance films for 2021’s Porch View Dances. Upcoming films includes: produced, performed in and directed episodes for Kitchen Dances with Karen Kaeja and Moze Mossannen, to be released in May 2023. Allen is in pre-production for “I am the Child of…” and will begin filming in April 2023.

FILMOGRAPHIE