40+ YEARS!

Est. OCTOBER 12, 1983

Karen Jamieson’s vision is to reveal the power of dance as an art form with potential to transform, engage, captivate, heal, and to impart knowledge available only to the dancing body; believing the power of contemporary dance transcends cultures, languages, histories and traditions by connecting us all at a very primal level.

As we celebrate 41 years of Karen Jamieson Dance it prompts us to reflect on all the people we have encountered, worked with, collaborated with, and all the incarnations of the company through those years. We are grateful for the four decades of artistic creation that have passed and are looking forward to the future. 

We are addressing issues of legacy. We are keenly aware of the responsibility this company has to the public and the funders that have supported us for many years – the investment into this organization is being treated with the utmost respect for preserving and sharing the results of that investment through The Legacy Project and the many ways we participate in and contribute to the larger arts community. We are grateful for the voice we have been able to have across disciplines and for the recognition we have received.

The future holds exciting possibilities for KJD – whether it's the ongoing community-engaged dance practice in collaboration with the Carnegie Dance Troupe, led by Rianne Svelnis, the next iterations of our Body to Land project, or the conception of new projects. It is a privilege to work with so many gifted individuals and communities and we welcome the continued learning and growth that these relationships and reflections bring.

KJD 40th Anniversary Video History

Karen Jamieson Dance was formed in 1983 under the artistic direction of Karen Jamieson. Karen has created over 115 original dance works with original scores by over 20 respected Canadian composers, performed in Canada, Europe, Japan and the United States. Her work, Sisyphus, was named one of the 10 Canadian choreographic masterworks of the 20th century, and multi-year projects such as Gawa Gyani, Stone Soup, her collaboration with the Haida village of Skidegate B.C., and the Dance in the Downtown Eastside program are recognized nationally as groundbreaking in the field of community-engaged and cross-cultural dance. In 2017, Karen was an inaugural inductee into the Canadian Dance Hall of Fame.

40th Anniversary Video History created by Charlotte Leonard

Title Card photo by Chris Randle - Sisyphus 1983