Toronto’s running out of affordable rehearsal space. It’s putting the city’s rich arts scene at risk

The dance companies REAson d’etre Dance and Kaeja d’Dance face a lack of options for rehearsing.

Thestar.com
Jan. 10, 2023
Bruce DeMara

Two dance companies -- one similar problem: the declining number of affordable rehearsal and performance spaces in Toronto.

Since the onset of COVID, the situation has gotten even more difficult. The city lost one prime dance hub when Dovercourt House closed in early 2021, which left many dance companies without a place to go when they resumed programming after lockdowns.

Kathleen Rea, founder and artistic director of REAson d’etre Dance, is one of the folks affected.

“There are a bunch of modern dance companies and social dance enterprises that are all fighting over a small pool of rentals,” Rea said.

“We’re searching desperately for spaces,” said Allen Kaeja of Kaeja d’Dance, which he co-founded with his wife Karen more than 30 years ago.

“We’re looking for space that is not only affordable but . . . conducive to dance rehearsal,” Kaeja added, citing the need for a sprung floor and a wide-open dance floor with no obstructions.

Rea, a member of George Brown College’s dance program since 1999 and a dancer for more than three decades, said the cost for an hour of rehearsal has shot up from $30 to as high as $80, which could be prohibitive for a production that may require up to 100 hours of rehearsal.

A four-hour rehearsal at Dovercourt House, where Rea rented space from Kaeja d’Dance, used to cost $135. She’s now paying $350 for four hours in another location.

In March 2021, Andy Haslett, the former leaseholder at Dovercourt House, closed the facility, forcing longtime tenant Kaeja d’Dance, as well as the dance companies princess productions and Corpus, to seek new locations.

Kathleen Rea, founder of REAson d'etre Dance, bemoans the city's small pool of available spaces.

Haslett said he had to shut down because the property was losing between $3,000 and $4,000 a month. Dovercourt House has since reopened with a new leaseholder and new tenants.

“It was not economically sustainable. We were not able to operate (during COVID). I blame the lockdown,” Haslett said.

Karen Kaeja said her company used to sublease its Dovercourt space to other smaller dance companies, such as Rea’s, during her time there.

“We instituted a program for younger and emerging companies to have extremely cut rates,” she said. “(Dovercourt) housed thousands of dancers a month for years and years.”

“The great thing about landing the space when we did was that we could finally not be dragging all our stuff around and have a stable space,” said Karen, who has been dancing with Allen for 40 years. “We could store things there. We could send a schedule out to the dancers. We always knew where we would be.

“Now we’re back to a maniacal way of working, where you’re all over the place in different spaces.”

This all comes in the wake of contemporary dance company DanceWorks departing the Distillery District in late 2020, a serious loss of affordable rental space.

The National Ballet School has appropriate space, Rea said, but because of COVID, it restricts the number of rentals to protect the health of its students.

These days, Rea finds herself competing with weddings to book some venues, which are also in need of the revenue.

Her company has found a new space, the Beach United Church, for its weekly Tuesday evening “jam session.” Attendees pay a fee per session and, Rea said, it’s a vital fundraiser for the company.

“(It’s) a beautiful location and we love being there, they’re amazing. But it costs a lot more money,” Rea said.

The church is also in the east end, in the Beach neighbourhood, far from REAson d’etre’s previous west end location at Dovercourt House, so many former regulars have stopped showing up. Because the company specializes in a dance form called “contact improvisation,” some are reluctant to return with COVID still an issue.

“We don’t have our regular 30 to 40 people,” Rea said. “Even now, the biggest jam we are hitting is 25 people. It’s been so slow for people to return. So the rent increase has occurred during a time when we’re really struggling to build up our numbers, both for our live productions and for the dance jams.”

Allen Kaeja said his company received a grant from the Toronto Arts Council’s Open Door fund to find a new, permanent home but has had no success.

Toronto, unlike many large cities, lacks a dedicated dance centre to offer space to its extensive dance community, Rea said.

“We’re a world-class city that really should have a dedicated dance centre,” she said, adding that none of the spaces her company rents even have access to showers and a change room.

“It’s not just the difficulty of rentals. If I walked into dedicated dance centres, I would see my peers,” she said. “That exchange . . . is what we’re missing in Toronto.”