Dance company marks 15th anniversary with new show

By LINCOLN DEPRADINE
Kevin A. Ormsby remembers the early days of KasheDance when the performing company was under-resourced. Members persevered, however, and KasheDance is now celebrating its 15th anniversary.
“It means a lot to me as artistic director,” Ormsby said in an interview with Share in which he also discussed KasheDance’s upcoming presentation of “Retrospek”.
Ormsby said he’s “very excited” about “Retrospek”, KasheDance’s 15th anniversary show, which opens Thursday, April 18, at Toronto’s Citadel + Compagnie, 304 Parliament Street.
It brings together seasoned performers from the company’s history that are returning to join current artistes in the KasheDance celebration.
“Retrospek” is described as “a journey of choreographies rich in rhythmic traditions, culture, social and human rights activism”, and also as a presentation that “examines the past, celebrates the present and signals the creative possibilities of Black dance in Canada”.
The selected dances in “Retrospek” are “all pieces we’ve done over the past 15 years”, Ormsby told Share. They include “Recalcitrare”, “FACING Home: Love and Redemption”, “In SEARCH of OURselves”, “Baraka” and Re:member”.
“It has been sheer joy looking at choreographies created over the span of 15 years and ‘re:membering’ all the dancers that have contributed to this milestone,” Ormsby said. “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.”
“Re:membering” is the title of the newest dance piece in the anniversary production KasheDance, whose members recently visited Winnipeg to perform with another Black dance company.
According to Ormsby, “re:membering” is a post-COVID piece “looking at carnival culture from the Caribbean”.
“The work explores Caribbean rhythms, cultural practices and the influence they have had on the Canadian cultural landscape,” Ormsby said.
“We’ve been rehearsing for people to respond in our performances; to hoot and holler and cheer and be dancing and moving with us, and be inspired by Black and Caribbean movement and music and vocabulary and language.”
Ormsby believes “Retrospek” is a fitting commemoration of KasheDance.
“It’s 15 years. It takes a lot of work to build a company over 15 years,” he said. “Now, we’re getting national funding and provincial funding and city funding to do the work and to pay the artistes to do the work.”
After its opening night on April 18, KasheDance will return to the stage at 8 p.m. on April 20 and a final showing at 2 p.m. on Sunday, April 21.
Each performance is approximately 145 minutes in length. “Retrospek” will also be livestreamed at https://www.citadelcie.com/event/kashedance.
For more information, call 416-899-9448 or 416-538-0988; or email in**@ka********.com.