By Neil Armstrong

The Toronto dance company, KasheDance, is promising audiences a celebration of dances of the Caribbean and African Diaspora and to take them on a journey of choreographies rich in rhythmic traditions, culture, social and human rights activism.

Their 15^th anniversary celebration, “Retrospek,” examines the past, celebrates the present, and signals the creative possibilities of Black dance in Canada. Seasoned artists from the company’s history will return to the stage to join current artists from April 18 to April 20 at the Citadel + Compagnie on Parliament Street in Toronto.

The show includes “Re:connect, Re:staged, Re:live, Re:member,” which allows those in attendance to “re:connect” with some of the company’s iconic works “re:staged” by guests, alumni, and current dancers under the creative support of KasheDance’s award-winning artistic director Kevin A. Ormsby.

 “It has been sheer joy looking at choreographies created over the span of fifteen years and “re:membering” all the dancers that have contributed to this milestone. Many have gone on to create their own dances and form their own companies. I am truly humbled that they distilled the chaos of creative desires into choreographic clarity.”

Audiences will “re:live,” “Until Then Now,” an amalgam of iconic works such as “Dreams, Desires Possibilities,” “In SEARCH of OURselves (2010),” and “Baraka (2011)” based on displacement of culture, migration and people. “It is an homage to cultures, the diaspora and journeys we make, and a cosmopolitan city where all those questions meet as we go “In SEARCH of OURselves”,” notes the organizers.

“Recalcitrare (2013)” premiered at Canada Dance Festival’s “Fresh Canadian Choreography” in 2011. It explores the symbiosis of dance techniques, their relationship to art and music, and questions perceptions of the instruments of the classical period. 

“FACING Home: Love and Redemption (2016),” the company’s popular choreography draws from the many influences of reggae music and Jamaican culture and is set to covers of Bob Marley’s songs by Matisyahou of New York City, Luciano of Jamaica and Jonathon Butler of South Africa, among others.

 “FACING Homehighlights the paradox around the West Indian preaching of liberation we find in Marley’s music, while simultaneously oppressing the LGBTQ community’s ability to participate in family, community and culture,” says co-choreographer Chris Walker, director of the Division of the Arts at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. 

The company’s most recent work, “Re:Imaginings “time, place and movement” (2020),”draws its movements from Caribbean carnival tradition (African, French, Spanish, and English influences) throughout this collaborative research/creation project. Rooted in the re-investigation of contemporary Caribbean dance language, the work explores Caribbean rhythms, cultural practices, and the influence they have had on the Canadian cultural landscape. 

This will be performed nightly by guests, alumni, and current members of KasheDance along with five musicians. 

Each performance is approximately 145 minutes in length. The production will also be livestreamed at https://www.citadelcie.com/event/kashedance.

Led by Ormsby, an award-winning and 2021 Metcalf Arts Prize-nominated finalist, KasheDance echoes in a new genealogy of Afro-contemporary dance steeped in modern dance, ballet, and rooted in the Caribbean dance and the African Diaspora. It has performed to critical acclaim in Canada and internationally.