My Shows
News on your favorite shows, specials & more!

SWEET EPHEMERA to Open at The Theatre Centre with Queer and Diasporic Dance Double Bill

DanceWorks will present works by Eilish 미정 Shin-Culhane and Jose Miguel Esteban in Toronto.

By:
SWEET EPHEMERA to Open at The Theatre Centre with Queer and Diasporic Dance Double Bill

As part of its 2026 season, DanceWorks will present Sweet Ephemera, a double bill featuring Peel Me by Eilish 미정 Shin-Culhane and pahinga ka muna by Jose Miguel “Miggy” Esteban. Exploring queer intimacy, cultural memory, and diasporic experience, the program runs June 18 to 20, 2026, at The Theatre Centre and brings together two compelling new contemporary dance works by emerging Toronto-based artists. The performance is on June 18 to 20 at 8:00 pm.

Sweet Ephemera asks what it means to carry culture, identity, and grief in the body, and what happens when we allow others to witness that weight. Across two works, performers use food, ritual, improvisation, and sensory experience to move between tenderness and release, memory and mourning, control and care.

“Sweet Ephemera brings together two artists with very distinct voices and practices, creating an evening that feels personal, thoughtful, and rooted in human experience. I think the work invites audiences into something that is both deeply felt and creatively expansive. We're excited to be able to share this work with Toronto audience,” says Jennifer Robichaud, Artistic Director of DanceWorks.

The evening opens with Peel Me by Eilish 미정 Shin-Culhane, an experimental contemporary dance work that asks audiences to consider what lies beneath the surface. Through a series of vivid vignettes, performers eat and destroy grapefruits and fortune cookies, using mess and sensation as a path to emotional release.

The evening continues with pahinga ka muna by Jose Miguel “Miggy” Esteban, an improvisational ritual of mourning and rest rooted in Filipinx diasporic experience, disability, crip, and mad arts practice of access. Weaving together poetic audio description, movement, and memory, the work invites audiences into an evolving performance of care, where no two evenings are alike.



Theater Fans' Choice Awards
2026 Theater Fans' Choice Awards - Live Stats
Best Direction of a Musical - Top 3
1. Michael Arden - The Lost Boys
29.4% of votes
2. Tim Jackson - Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York)
12.9% of votes
3. Lear deBessonet - Ragtime
12.6% of votes

Don't Miss a Toronto News Story
Sign up for all the news on the Spring season, discounts & more...


Videos


Death of a Salesman in Toronto Death of a Salesman
Stratford Festival (5/05-10/24) PHOTOS
Ed Sheeran, Myles Smith & Lukas Graham at Rogers Centre in Toronto Ed Sheeran, Myles Smith & Lukas Graham at Rogers Centre
Rogers Centre (9/20-8/22)
Matilda - Worms in Toronto Matilda - Worms
BNZ Theatre (7/01-7/04)
John Cameron Mitchell: Hedwig 25th Anniversary Movie Tour in Toronto John Cameron Mitchell: Hedwig 25th Anniversary Movie Tour
The Danforth Music Hall (6/28-6/28)
The Importance of Being Earnest in Toronto The Importance of Being Earnest
Stratford Festival (5/19-10/23) PHOTOS
Vera Polozkova in Toronto Vera Polozkova
Meridian Arts Centre: Greenwin Theatre (6/08-6/08)
World's Gone Wild in Toronto World's Gone Wild
The Second City (3/27-7/26)
Lui ( He) A Play By Ashkan Khatibi in Toronto Lui ( He) A Play By Ashkan Khatibi
Meridian Arts Centre: Greenwin Theatre (5/21-5/23)
The House of Special Purpose in Toronto The House of Special Purpose
The Theatre Centre (6/03-6/06)
Mt. Joy  in Toronto Mt. Joy
RBC Amphitheatre (9/21-9/21)