Kimiko
Created by Kaylie Kreatrix
Produced by Key Creations (Ottawa, Canada)
45 min (plus 10 minutes optional audience participation)
G / Physical / Storytelling / Dance / Circus / Solo
By Brian Carroll
Kaylie Kreatrix is an accomplished circus performer. For instance, she has a decade of experience spinning the beautiful s-staff or buugeng for audiences. She is proficient with many other prop techniques including juggling, dragon staff, fans, parasols, prop balance, and more.
Much of her training is in Japanese circus technique. But, in spite of her proficiency, she felt that her performances to date had been shallow. Here she was, performing Japanese arts without an understanding of the cultural context for those arts. As a half-Japanese Canadian, her parents had raised her without discussing the Japanese side of her heritage.
Therefore, Kreatrix spent time in Canada and Japan exploring what it means to be Japanese, while trying to balance that with her Canadian side. In Kimiko, she draws on a number of sources, including the WWII internment of Japanese Canadians, their forced diaspora from British Columbia across the rest of Canada, the Shinto performance arts of Edo Daikagura, the art of kimono and obi dressing, and the paper cranes of the young dying girl Sadako Sasaki of Hiroshima.
Kreatrix weaves these stories into physical performances of exquisite beauty and ever-increasing skill and difficulty. The opening-night audience responded with increasing levels of applause for her jaw-dropping physical performance.
While the late-night show attracted only adults, Kimiko is also a family appropriate show, particularly for teens. Parents can also bring pre-teens, but they should schedule time after the show for discussion of issues of war, racism, and the discovery of one’s roots.
Kimiko is a beautiful and thought-provoking addition to the breadth and depth of the Ottawa Fringe experience. Brava!
Kimiko is playing at the BYOV – Atelier until June 24, 2023. Visit ottawafringe.com/fringe/ for the schedule and box office info. Read more reviews at https://apt613.ca/category/festival/fringe/.
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