Kaja Irwin

Kaja Irwin is a Winnipeg, Manitoba born jazz dancer, choreographer, and dance educator. After deciding to pursue a career in dance after completing her B.A. in Political Science, Kaja studied in the Professional Training Program offered at Decidedly Jazz Danceworks, developing her love of both jazz and the Calgary dance community and is currently in her ninth season as a Company Dancer with Decidedly Jazz Danceworks.

Irwin has been performing, choreographing and teaching extensively across Canada. She has worked with respected choreographers Michèle Moss, Deanne Walsh, Alison (Bryan) Stone and Jennifer Mahood in Calgary as well as Sharon Harvey and Jenn Goodwin in Toronto. While living in Winnipeg she had the pleasure of performing with several collectives including Canvas Pulse Collective, Define Movement, Evolve Dance Company, and Prairie Dancers as well as training with NAfro Dance Productions.

Through movement, Irwin aims to transport viewers to another part of themselves, engaging them mentally and physically, prompting them to question their relationships to each other and their surroundings. She is interested in non traditional performance spaces, costuming, and feels a strong connection to music which drives her to choreograph and perform. Irwin’s ongoing collaboration with jazz drummer Nate Chiang and their continued exploration of improvised pieces continues to inspire her.

Irwin is excited by movement collaborations across art forms. She has recently collaborated with jewelry artist Corey Moranis in a short film released in Spring 2020. Irwin continues to research and develop a connection between mask/puppetry and jazz, creating pieces ‘Snake, Rattle and Roll’, ‘Limbo’, ‘HelloOoo’ and ‘M+F’ presented in 2020-2023. Her solo piece ‘HOWL’, second in the ‘VROOM’ series, was premiered at to the AWE in March 2019. Irwin has choreographed for the Annual Alberta Dance Festival in both September 2017 and 2018. In 2015 she was a juried choreographer at 60x60 in Toronto, ON and in 2014 her solo performance ‘MAIM’ was exhibited in Ottawa, CA and Amsterdam, NL. She has enjoyed choreographing music videos for the Winnipeg band Royal Canoe including, ‘Living a Lie’, ‘Somersault’ and ‘Walk Out on the Water’.

Upcoming

Irwin is currently in her ninth season with Decidedly Jazz Danceworks, a choreographer in their upcoming production, ‘Olio’, a part of the TD Arts Commons Incubator program, developing work for the Festival of Animated Objects supported by the Festival’s incubator program as well as Canadian Academy of Mask and Puppetry and is looking forward to continue to create work that engages the imagination and focuses on the connection of music, movement and human spirit.