Photo: Kendra Epik (L), Spotlight Glow (R).

Sweet Ephemera

A double bill exploring queer intimacies of diasporic ritual featuring Eilish 미정 Shin-Culhane’s Peel Me and Jose Miguel “Miggy” Esteban’s pahinga ka muna.

June 18-20, 2026

The Theatre Centre

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**Tickets for Sweet Ephemera range from $18-40**.

SUPPORTER - $40.00 incl. HST and fees - If you have access to a salary, savings, investments, assets, or familial wealth, selecting this rate will help subsidize the attendance of someone for whom cost is a barrier.
REGULAR - $36.00 incl. HST and fees - This rate reflects the regular cost for the event. Please select this rate if you have access to a regular income and are able to meet your basic needs around food, housing, and transportation.
SUBSIDIZED - $18.00 to $24.00 incl. HST and fees - Please select this rate if you are able to meet your basic needs but have gaps in your income and limited access to savings or familial support.
This approach is greatly inspired by the Toronto Dance Community Love-In. Special thanks to Leelee Oluwastoyosi Eko Davis for sharing their knowledge!

Peel Me

Eilish 미정 Shin-Culhane

Peel Me asks you to peel back your layers. Will you? Can you? What sits just under the surface? And then under that? Through a series of vignettes, Peel Me’s performers eat and destroy grapefruits and fortune cookies, using mess as an access for catharsis. This experimental Western contemporary dance work examines nuanced states of control, release, greed and care, all while building a truly sensory experience.

Eilish 미정 Shin-Culhane is a Tkaronto-based queer mixed-Korean artist, dancer and choreographer. Holding a BFA from Marymount Manhattan College, they have performed in works by Peter Chu, Bill T. Jones, Nicole von Arx, Angela Blumberg, Nova Bhattacharya, Vim Vigor and Esie Mensah. Their choreography has been presented through Peggy Baker Dance Projects, TDT’s Pilot Episodes Program, the Citadel + Compagnie’s Night Shift, and upcoming in DanceWorks’ Sweet Ephemera. They centre joy, discussion and catharsis through their collaborative process, prioritizing deep connections and continual growth. Eilish continues to be inquisitive in both her mover and maker selves, valuing community, play, and curiosity.
Choreographer: Eilish 미정 Shin-Culhane
Dancers: Morgyn Aronyk-Schell, Steph Harkness, Shona Kiyama, Hannah Shikatani, Barbara Simms
Composer: Aidan McConnell
Costume Designer: Charlotte Carbone
Stage Manager: Helin Gungoren
Lighting Designer: Hannah Kirby
Thank you to the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council and the Toronto Arts Council for your research support. A deep and continued thank you to the National Ballet’s Open Space Programme. An endless thank you to those who have supported this work and lived in this world in its many evolutions, Kéïta Fournier-Pelletier, Tavia Christina, Audrey Sides, Élodie Kyra, Judy Luo, Audrianna Martin del Campo, Kaelin Isserlin, Jessica Mak, Sophia Hassenstein, Kathy Le, Kendra Epik, Nova Dance, CanAsian Dance, and the Toronto Dance Theatre's Pilot Episodes Program. And finally to Dedra for your trust, to DanceWorks for your support, to Miggy for being the best double-bill mate and to Austin for everything else.

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Photos: Kendra Epik

pahinga ka muna

Jose Miguel ‘Miggy’ Esteban

Returning to rest as a crip space of memory, dreaming, and worldmaking, Miggy invites you to take part in an improvisational ritual of mourning that traces the multisensorial mad and queer routes of their Filipinx diasporic inspirations.

Influenced through disability/crip/mad arts practices of engaging access as creative provocation, this work experiments with multisensorial, poetic, and narrative audio descriptions–reorienting to them as the choreographic scores that potentiate ephemeral and non-replicable improvised performances of care.

Jose Miguel ‘Miggy’ Esteban is a dance/movement artist and educator whose choreographic work explores improvisational practices of navigating mad and queer routes to embody Filipinx (un)belonging. Miggy is also a PhD candidate in social justice education and a course instructor at the University of Toronto where their research and teaching explores critical and creative pedagogies oriented through disability/mad arts and culture, black radical traditions of poetic study, and improvised dance/performance.
Choreographer, Writer, and Performer: Jose Miguel ‘Miggy’ Esteban
Videographer and Editor: Spotlight Glow
Composer and Sound Designer: JJ Omelagah
Audio Description Voice Performer: Elaine Cagulada
Deaf Interpreter: Courage Bacchus
Lighting Designer: Hannah Kirby
Stage Manager: Helin Gungoren
Access Support and Dramaturge: Kass Prus
Care Dramaturge: Dedra McDermott
Filipinx Dramaturge: Bee Pallomina
Disability Dramaturge: Jessica Watkin
Filipino Sign Language Consultant: Carmelle Cachero
ASL-English Interpreters: Aliya Haniff and Breann O’Hara-Johns
Development for this work was supported by Toronto Dance Theatre’s “Plug N’ Play” Residency, and CanAsian Dance x Toronto Dance Theatre’s “EntryWaves” Residency. This project has received funding support from the Toronto Arts Council and the Ontario Arts Council.