Anna Jaeger
Founder, Artistic Director, Producer, Choreographer, Client Contact, Performer
Anna Jaeger is a Toronto-based professional dancer, actor, choreographer, producer, rehearsal director, model, and private dance coach. Wearing nothing but a ball gown or a tutu since the age of two, Anna now has had over 30 years experience performing on stage, in film & television. She has danced in the works of many renowned choreographers from all over Canada and spent 12 years as a member of the Canadian Contemporary Dance Theatre. Career highlights include touring nationally and internationally with CCDT, a glowing review by Globe and Mail dance critic Dierdre Kelly in 1999, and working with Kelly McGillis and award-wining actor Frank Langella. In the spring of 2012, Anna founded the High Society Cabaret as an outlet her love of all things vintage, pin-up, burlesque & Old Hollywood silver screen glamour. In addition to creating, producing and performing in High Society Cabaret, Anna also performs as burlesque alter ego Belle Epoque ~ La Bonne Vivante. She is currently adapting to her latest and most exciting role yet… as a mother, while continuing to produce, perform and create.
“I always loved the back-stage pre-show process of being with Knox and our cast of performers, getting ready to hit the stage. I also loved our creative process. When Knox and I were working together developing show ideas, we would meet for hours and literally pick each other's brains and we would get so excited. Then seeing how these ideas would be brought to life on stage was beyond gratifying. I would say to her ‘you’re in my brain!!’” - Anna Jaeger
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Newly settling into married life in 2011, Anna was looking for a new project to sink her teeth into and had always dreamed of creating and performing a vintage burlesque cabaret show. However she was struggling with resources and how to start. By coincidence Anna met Laura Furtado, the owner of DivaGirl, through a friend. Laura invited Anna to join her growing #girlboss community, mentioning that she had an entertainment division. At a DivaGirl networking event called LaTease Anna first met Knox Harter.
“During the choreography workshop part of the evening, Knox pulled me onto the floor and when I said ‘oh I can’t dance in 6 inch heels,’ (which is a lie) she responded ‘if I can dance in 6 inch heels, so can you!’ And that was that!” - Anna Jaeger |
The following month Anna, with Knox, attended the first DivaGirl Conference in 2012, a women-only weekend networking event. There she met other members of DivaGirl's current entertainment branch. Later that evening at an afterparty at a club called C-Lounge, Anna and Knox were tearing up the dance floor together and Anna quickly realized that she knew she wanted to work with Knox more.
As Anna and Laura were becoming friends and meeting to discuss Anna’s ideas for a cabaret show, Laura began feeding ideas for execution. Anna explained her vision of vintage aesthetics, high caliber dancing and burlesque. At the time Laura referred to them as the “DivaGirl shows”, and saw them as part of a broader movement of heels dancing that also included Army of Sass founder Carla Catherwood.
However Anna’s vision for her show persisted with the goal of becoming Toronto's vintage showgirl experience. It would combine burlesque and cabaret style dance and theatrics and eventually it would become an immersive experience like dinner theatre with burlesque themed cocktails and a menu that would reflect the content of the show. Inspiration for the company came from images and films of vintage burlesque, films of Vegas showgirls, Zeigfeld Follies, American Italian and French cinema, as well as vintage fashion.
Eventually, High Society Cabaret’s first show A Decadent Scandal hit the stage at the venue formerly known as Jezebel at Dundas Street and Ossington Avenue. The show was simple and concise: solos by four feature artists (including Anna), bookended by an opening and closing ensemble act with the four soloists. Laura and Carla (under the branding of the Chic-A-Boom Room) supported the show with promotion, booking the DJ, handling ticket sales and managing the door. The show was a one night only launch for High Society Cabaret, and it was met with a lot of enthusiasm and excitement by the audience. Laura quickly urged Anna to execute monthly performances following the same structure with a rotating cast of the DivaGirl dance roster. Anna would quickly turn out Dangerous Dames and a weekly series that holiday season called Santa Baby.
Anna trusted Laura’s business savvy and that this formula would work despite feeling like it was unrealistic to produce a well-crafted show in only 4 rehearsals. Anna tried to work within that structure despite feeling like she wasn't being set up to win. To Anna, most of Laura's time and focus seemed to be devoted elsewhere. When it was time for High Society Cabaret’s pre-production, Anna found DivaGirl’s dance roster limiting as most of the girls were working with the other companies or involved in multiple different productions through DivaGirl and The Chic-A-Boom Room.
During Santa Baby Anna started noticing lack of support from their host venue Nyood on Queen Street West. She was also facing new challenges with the show itself. The dancers were starting to interact with the audience more, and the show structure was already starting to evolve. These Christmas shows would prove extremely challenging. Laura decided to piggy back the High Society Cabaret shows at Nyood onto the Army of Sass Christmas shows at Mod Club, marketing them with the same name and visual branding. It proved detrimental to the High Society Cabaret shows, causing the last show in the series to be cancelled and forcing Anna to pay the dancers out of pocket.
In the new year, Anna approached Laura and Knox to invite Knox to come on as a choreographer and assistant director to the High Society Cabaret shows. Together they would present In The Boudoir and Diamonds and Daggers within months of each other to respectable success. Anna would also debut her burlesque alter-ego Belle Epoque on stage in In the Boudoir. With the closing of Diamonds and Daggers, Anna would consult with Laura and Knox to bring Knox on as a co-artistic director while Anna prepared for maternity leave with her first pregnancy.
In the fall of 2013 Anna and Knox would start production for Down in Old New Orleans and at Knox's encouragement Anna would create “Barefoot and Pregnant”, Anna’s first full burlesque reveal at six months pregnant. Anna’s involvement with High Society Cabaret would be behind the scenes as she navigated motherhood, but still taking every opportunity possible to get on a stage and develop a new act. Anna would later admit a lot fell on Knox’s shoulders in her absence, as Knox really kept the engines running while Anna was with babies and toddlers, trying to figure out how to juggle it all. She would also experience a lot of artistic frustration not being able to put her creative ideas into production when she wanted to because of motherhood.
As Anna and Laura were becoming friends and meeting to discuss Anna’s ideas for a cabaret show, Laura began feeding ideas for execution. Anna explained her vision of vintage aesthetics, high caliber dancing and burlesque. At the time Laura referred to them as the “DivaGirl shows”, and saw them as part of a broader movement of heels dancing that also included Army of Sass founder Carla Catherwood.
However Anna’s vision for her show persisted with the goal of becoming Toronto's vintage showgirl experience. It would combine burlesque and cabaret style dance and theatrics and eventually it would become an immersive experience like dinner theatre with burlesque themed cocktails and a menu that would reflect the content of the show. Inspiration for the company came from images and films of vintage burlesque, films of Vegas showgirls, Zeigfeld Follies, American Italian and French cinema, as well as vintage fashion.
Eventually, High Society Cabaret’s first show A Decadent Scandal hit the stage at the venue formerly known as Jezebel at Dundas Street and Ossington Avenue. The show was simple and concise: solos by four feature artists (including Anna), bookended by an opening and closing ensemble act with the four soloists. Laura and Carla (under the branding of the Chic-A-Boom Room) supported the show with promotion, booking the DJ, handling ticket sales and managing the door. The show was a one night only launch for High Society Cabaret, and it was met with a lot of enthusiasm and excitement by the audience. Laura quickly urged Anna to execute monthly performances following the same structure with a rotating cast of the DivaGirl dance roster. Anna would quickly turn out Dangerous Dames and a weekly series that holiday season called Santa Baby.
Anna trusted Laura’s business savvy and that this formula would work despite feeling like it was unrealistic to produce a well-crafted show in only 4 rehearsals. Anna tried to work within that structure despite feeling like she wasn't being set up to win. To Anna, most of Laura's time and focus seemed to be devoted elsewhere. When it was time for High Society Cabaret’s pre-production, Anna found DivaGirl’s dance roster limiting as most of the girls were working with the other companies or involved in multiple different productions through DivaGirl and The Chic-A-Boom Room.
During Santa Baby Anna started noticing lack of support from their host venue Nyood on Queen Street West. She was also facing new challenges with the show itself. The dancers were starting to interact with the audience more, and the show structure was already starting to evolve. These Christmas shows would prove extremely challenging. Laura decided to piggy back the High Society Cabaret shows at Nyood onto the Army of Sass Christmas shows at Mod Club, marketing them with the same name and visual branding. It proved detrimental to the High Society Cabaret shows, causing the last show in the series to be cancelled and forcing Anna to pay the dancers out of pocket.
In the new year, Anna approached Laura and Knox to invite Knox to come on as a choreographer and assistant director to the High Society Cabaret shows. Together they would present In The Boudoir and Diamonds and Daggers within months of each other to respectable success. Anna would also debut her burlesque alter-ego Belle Epoque on stage in In the Boudoir. With the closing of Diamonds and Daggers, Anna would consult with Laura and Knox to bring Knox on as a co-artistic director while Anna prepared for maternity leave with her first pregnancy.
In the fall of 2013 Anna and Knox would start production for Down in Old New Orleans and at Knox's encouragement Anna would create “Barefoot and Pregnant”, Anna’s first full burlesque reveal at six months pregnant. Anna’s involvement with High Society Cabaret would be behind the scenes as she navigated motherhood, but still taking every opportunity possible to get on a stage and develop a new act. Anna would later admit a lot fell on Knox’s shoulders in her absence, as Knox really kept the engines running while Anna was with babies and toddlers, trying to figure out how to juggle it all. She would also experience a lot of artistic frustration not being able to put her creative ideas into production when she wanted to because of motherhood.
“But fortunately, that part led to forcing me to really marinate on my ideas so that they were very well fleshed out once it came to pre-production.” - Anna Jaeger
Her first foray back to stage would be with La Dolce Vita. With a baby in tow, Anna would dance in rehearsals wearing a carrier, often miming the tambourine sections while the baby held the tambourine. Coming back to dancing was a challenge in a new body, and it was an adjustment when it came to stage not wearing the baby. Anna was also thrilled to create her signature act “Carina”, inspired by the Fellini film of the same name.
Anna would remount “Barefoot and Pregnant” for the last time with her second pregnancy during the second mount of Down in Old New Orleans, giving the act a much grittier and darker tone with the help of Knox. Anna would note that at the same six months of pregnancy she was much larger this time, which posed challenges to the performance. After a verbal altercation at the venue, Anna would agree with Knox's decision to leave Parlour. Anna and Knox looked forward to expanding to bigger stages.
Anna’s first large production attempt would be with Portrait of a Scandal: A show inspired by the films "Dangerous Liaisons" and "Amadeus" and the art work of Sandro Botticelli. Anna imagined the show to be spectacularly visual, theatrical and fantastical with a full narrative, jaw-dropping, beautiful burlesque solos. With Knox having already written her first High Society Cabaret script, Anna relied on Knox to help with dialogue and dramaturg the story. Being at home with a toddler and new baby, Anna first had to choreograph the lovers' duet in her kitchen, dancing both parts. By the time rehearsal with the dancers began in Knox’s apartment, Anna was demonstrating some of the choreography while carrying her baby daughter in a carrier. Anna would also create her next signature act "Aphrodite", inspired by the Botticelli painting "The Birth of Venus". She would often create and rehearse this act late at night in her kitchen, using the reflection in the microwave as a mirror.
Anna would become the regular liaison to potential clients for corporate and entertainment bookings. She would make the initial approach or be the face of the company. She would regularly consult with Knox on the logistics once enough information was provided by the client, and become the main on-site contact as often as possible.
Anna would single handedly write the full production of La Dolce Vita: a quirky romantic comedy inspired by Fellini films. She would hand the script over to Knox as the choreographer and director, while Anna would take on the lead role of Betty. There were challenges in rehearsal in mastering the spoken Italian, as well as taking on her first High Society Cabaret lead role. It had been a while since Anna had acted on stage and it took some time to find her footing. With regular rehearsals and the help of Knox and her dominant scene partner Robbie Fenton, Anna mastered Betty’s nativity and optimism.
After complications with Speakeasy at Revival, Anna took Speakeasy and moved it to Katana on Bay, after the owner of the restaurant made a request for entertainment. The owner wanted us to recreate "The Box" in New York City in his small storefront sushi restaurant. Anna quickly saw issues in communication, and as the show progressed in the space, she realized the venue could not deliver the support they were promising. After Knox has a disagreement with management staff, High Society Cabaret cancels Speakeasy at Katana.
Before the Covid-19 pandemic, Anna was pushing to land High Society Cabaret a regular contract with the Broadview Hotel as their in-house cabaret company. The relationship that she had sparked with the managerial team back in 2019 was new, but it was flourishing. Anna saw the aesthetic of the Broadview Hotel and High Society Cabaret in sync and felt the venue would be supportive. Anna and Knox were also working hard to develop corporate packages for weddings, galas, and events. High Society Cabaret was currently in residency at La Nuit Shanghai when the Covid-19 Pandemic began.
To date, Anna is responsible for founding, creating and supporting the vision of High Society Cabaret and creating a cherished theatre experience on stage.
Anna would remount “Barefoot and Pregnant” for the last time with her second pregnancy during the second mount of Down in Old New Orleans, giving the act a much grittier and darker tone with the help of Knox. Anna would note that at the same six months of pregnancy she was much larger this time, which posed challenges to the performance. After a verbal altercation at the venue, Anna would agree with Knox's decision to leave Parlour. Anna and Knox looked forward to expanding to bigger stages.
Anna’s first large production attempt would be with Portrait of a Scandal: A show inspired by the films "Dangerous Liaisons" and "Amadeus" and the art work of Sandro Botticelli. Anna imagined the show to be spectacularly visual, theatrical and fantastical with a full narrative, jaw-dropping, beautiful burlesque solos. With Knox having already written her first High Society Cabaret script, Anna relied on Knox to help with dialogue and dramaturg the story. Being at home with a toddler and new baby, Anna first had to choreograph the lovers' duet in her kitchen, dancing both parts. By the time rehearsal with the dancers began in Knox’s apartment, Anna was demonstrating some of the choreography while carrying her baby daughter in a carrier. Anna would also create her next signature act "Aphrodite", inspired by the Botticelli painting "The Birth of Venus". She would often create and rehearse this act late at night in her kitchen, using the reflection in the microwave as a mirror.
Anna would become the regular liaison to potential clients for corporate and entertainment bookings. She would make the initial approach or be the face of the company. She would regularly consult with Knox on the logistics once enough information was provided by the client, and become the main on-site contact as often as possible.
Anna would single handedly write the full production of La Dolce Vita: a quirky romantic comedy inspired by Fellini films. She would hand the script over to Knox as the choreographer and director, while Anna would take on the lead role of Betty. There were challenges in rehearsal in mastering the spoken Italian, as well as taking on her first High Society Cabaret lead role. It had been a while since Anna had acted on stage and it took some time to find her footing. With regular rehearsals and the help of Knox and her dominant scene partner Robbie Fenton, Anna mastered Betty’s nativity and optimism.
After complications with Speakeasy at Revival, Anna took Speakeasy and moved it to Katana on Bay, after the owner of the restaurant made a request for entertainment. The owner wanted us to recreate "The Box" in New York City in his small storefront sushi restaurant. Anna quickly saw issues in communication, and as the show progressed in the space, she realized the venue could not deliver the support they were promising. After Knox has a disagreement with management staff, High Society Cabaret cancels Speakeasy at Katana.
Before the Covid-19 pandemic, Anna was pushing to land High Society Cabaret a regular contract with the Broadview Hotel as their in-house cabaret company. The relationship that she had sparked with the managerial team back in 2019 was new, but it was flourishing. Anna saw the aesthetic of the Broadview Hotel and High Society Cabaret in sync and felt the venue would be supportive. Anna and Knox were also working hard to develop corporate packages for weddings, galas, and events. High Society Cabaret was currently in residency at La Nuit Shanghai when the Covid-19 Pandemic began.
To date, Anna is responsible for founding, creating and supporting the vision of High Society Cabaret and creating a cherished theatre experience on stage.
