Welcome to Dust and Soul Dance Projects

 Karen Kaeja (she/her) is a Tkaronto born Ashkenazi. An award-winning performer, choreographer, project instigator and mentor, she is “The mastermind behind Porch View Dances” Toronto Star. Karen develops platforms for collaborative relationships between dancers, everyday people and the body. Co-Artistic Director of Kaeja d’Dance with Allen Kaeja, she is in The Canadian Who’s Who and Dance in Canada Encylopedia. Her awards include the 2022 George Luscombe Mentorship Award, 2020 Dance Ontario Lifetime Achievement Award, CDA “I Love Dance” Community Award, and Paul D. Fleck Fellowship for Innovation. A finalist for the TAF Celebration of Cultural Life Award, the TAF Muriel Sherrin Award for International Achievement, NOW’s Best Local Choreographer and Best Dance Company, she is twice named one of NOW’s top 10 dance artists. A 7-time Dora Mavor Moore nominee, her work Crave received 4 Dora nominations, winning one. The heart of her research, choreography and critical writing for the past 30 years, concentrates on Touch, where the celebration of body memory as a living archive are in a continuous state of rebalancing. Commissioned and presented by performance series around the world, she collaborates and dances with many of Canada’s brilliant choreographers. www.kaeja.org 

Nickeshia Garrick was born in Toronto, Ontario and has been performing since the tender age

of six. She received her dance training at the NYIDE (New York Institution of Dance and

Education), National Ballet School of Canada, Toronto Dance Theatre and Simon Fraser

University. Her classical vocal and theatre training was achieved at Eastwood Collegiate

Institute. Nickeshia has had the honour of training with Sean McLeod (New York) to achieve her

certification in Sean McLeod’s Reinforced Motor Function Technique®, RMF®. Her extensive

dance training includes Bakari E. Lindsay, Arsenio Andrade, Rob Kitsos, Peter Bingham, and

Christopher House. She has received the privilege of performing in pieces by TDT, T.I.L.T Sound

and Motion, Kaeja d’ Dance, Serge Bennathan, James Kudelka, Ballet Jorgen and the Newton

Moraes Dance Theatre, just to mention a few. Nickeshia has performed the Canadian National

Anthem at the Rogers Centre, was a commissioned artist for the 2010 Winter Olympics

(Vancouver) as part of the Push International Performing Arts Festival, has made appearances

in various art installations and shows for Scotiabank’s Nuit Blanche (Toronto) and Fringe

Festival (Toronto), and was invited to perform at the Nafro Festival (Winnipeg) as a soloist and

part of a trio. Furthermore, Nickeshia has recently performed in No Womans Land created by

Roshanak Jaberi and mentored by Karen Kaeja, along with her 2019 Luminato debut as a soloist

and cast member in Obeah Opera by Nicole Brooks.

Nickeshia holds her BFA at Simon Fraser University (Vancouver), is a 2018 Dora Mavor Moore

Award winner for Outstanding Ensemble in Pool (no water), and is part of the upcoming

Rhubarb Festival for her choreographic debut as a solo artist in, To All My Past, Present, and

Future Lovers… I’m Sorry.

 Aria Evans is a queer, Toronto-based, award winning interdisciplinary artist who’s practice spans dance; creation, performance and film. Aria draws on their multi-racial experiences as well as their BFA (2012) to capture meaningful social and cultural themes through their interactive art. With a large-scale vision, collaboration is the departure point to the work that Aria creates under their company POLITICAL MOVEMENT. Advocating for inclusion and the representation of diversity, Aria uses their artistic practice to question the ways we can coexist together. www.politicalmovement.ca 

Allison Cummings is a performer/choreographer/art maker, who operates under the umbrella name Sore for Punching You.

She is based in Toronto, Canada. Her work has been presented at venues and festivals across Canada since 1996 including The Theatre Centre, Hysteria, Edgy Women/Montreal, Toronto Dance Theatre’s ‘Four at the Winch’, SummerWorks,  M:ST Performative Art Festival, 7a -11d, Canada Dance Festival, Fluid Festival, Moving Pictures Festival and Trinity Square Video, Older and Reckless, School of the Toronto DanceTheatre, Theatre Passe Muraille, Porchview Dances, Bright Nights (Citadel et Cie) among many more. 

She has produced her own multidisciplinary full length works, Quiver ’02, Clutch ’06, Devouring Lions ’09, Final Savage Land ’13 and Exhale ’18  

SHARON DIGENOVA is a Production Stage Manager and award- winning Lighting

Designer, who began her career in a Broadway touring house - working in all aspects of

technical theatre, on numerous Tony Award winning productions. Throughout her

career, She has worked in many capacities in a multitude of disciplines – designing for

dance, theatre, multi-media, circus and freak shows, as well as stage managing music

venues, producing dance, running her own venue, and touring internationally to over

350 cities (several times over) in more than 30 countries throughout North & South

America, Europe, Australia, Asia and the Far East. She has collaborated with scores of

National artists, ranging from The Royal Winnipeg Ballet, and Canada’s internationally

acclaimed Holy Body Tattoo to Ronnie Burkett Theatre of Marionettes. She has also Lit

numerous international artists including multi award winning dancer Patricia Guerrero

and Flamenco master, Joaquin Grilo and Production Managed numerous festivals

including, the IABD Conference and Showcase (International Association of Blacks in

Dance), and...Toronto’s International Tap Festival. Sharon also spends much of her year

volunteering with animals in need. Her Company Holly’s Hope, has been producing fund

raising events to bring awareness to, and raise funds for animals since 2012.

Christina Litt Belch is a composer, contemporary dance artist, choreographer, musician,

and teacher based in Toronto, Ontario. She has trained at various renowned schools in

Canada and the United States such as the Alberta Ballet School and The School of

Toronto Dance Theatre. Christina has worked as both a composer and performer for

dance: made in canada - inTO focus, Battery Dance Festival, Expect Theatre’s Beats +

Intentions, and the SummerWorks Performance Festival. As well, she has presented her

work at the Festival de Danse Contemporaine de Sherbrooke and has worked as a

rehearsal director at The School of Toronto Dance Theatre for a piece choreographed by

Pulga Muchochoma. Christina is now a collaborator with Kaeja d’Dance, PulgaDance,

and ZahraMoves. In 2020 she founded Litt Dance Collective, which aims to create

holistic works by melding musical and choreographic research.