Unfinish / Unfurl
a mini-festival focused on creative practice and choreographic process
Presented by DanceWorks, in collaboration with Meaningful Movement, Sara Porter Productions and Nina Milanovski, and CanAsian Dance, with co-production support from Dancemakers
May 7-10, 2025 at the Theatre Centre in Toronto and Online (Zoom)
Unfinish / Unfurl is a mini-festival focused on creative practice and choreographic process. We invite dance-makers, dance-enthusiasts, and curious community members to gather, share, question, and learn together. All are welcome regardless of previous experience within and around artistic environments!
Guided by the notion of ‘low stakes, low tech, deep dives, deep breaths’, Unfinish / Unfurl invites activities led by partners to exist in a shared space alongside DanceWorks-curated discussions, workshops, and showings. The mini-festival will gather divergent approaches to conceptualizing, making, practicing, and supporting dance; encouraging the intermingling of communities with shared values of reciprocal exchange and supportive challenge.
Click on the images below to learn more about each event!
All audience members, participants, and artists are welcome to join us for the Unfinish / Unfurl Closing Reception at The Theatre Centre on Saturday May 10th, starting at 10pm! We'll celebrate the festival’s featured artists and recognize two recent major accomplishments of local choreographers including Denise Fujiwara's Walter Carsen Prize, and Sasha Ivanochko's Guggenheim Fellowship.
The aims of Unfinish / Unfurl are to support the development of new dances by local artists, cultivate dance-making practices for emerging, mid-career and established artists alike, and nurture cross-cultural choreographic literacy amongst audiences. The festival’s structure follows a journey of dance-making from initial understandings of what choreography is/can be, to bringing emerging artists together for improvisational exploration, to nurturing fresh choreographic proposals, and finally showcasing semi-developed works-in-progress.
Tickets
Pay-what-you-can tickets between $0-24 can be purchased/reserved through The Theatre Centre Box Office for all in-person events and through Zeffy for the online workshop, Cripping the Full Out/Marking Binary.
You can find a list of the ticket links for each event here.
If you have questions about attending an in-person event, ticketing, or would like assistance purchasing tickets for an in-person event, your best option is to email [email protected]. You can also reach the Theatre Centre box office by phone at (416) 538-0988. Please leave a message and they will endeavour to return your call within 48 hours.
Considerations for Artists and Audience Members
Welcome to Unfinish / Unfurl ! As we enter the festival, we invite artists and audience members to consider:
Show up as you are. Presence is the heart.
Everything is practice. It might work, it might not. Let’s try together.
Creativity and dialogue take courage, and courage is a skill we can develop.
What keeps you going? More of that.
Say hi to someone new!
This is a power-conscious space in which we take care. Ask for help, attend to your needs, provide support when you can.
Access Information
If you have any Access Needs, please reach out to Cass Cabral Pucci, Festival Coordinator.
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The Franco Boni Theatre at The Theatre Centre is accessible via a single-user accessibility lift on the main floor:
The lift is key-operated and must be operated by a staff member. Upon arrival, please notify the Box Office or Café/Bar staff for lift assistance. When leaving the venue, the lift includes a blue call button to request staff assistance to go down.
The second floor provides level access into the theatre, with reserved seats on the ground level to accommodate accessibility devices.
An accessible bathroom is located on the second floor.
Banner photos (top and below) by Kaylee McCullough, featuring Miggy Esteban and Sukriti Sharma.
Unfinish / Unfurl logo by Kaylee McCullough.
Festival Team
Festival + Access Coordinator (Intern)
Cass Cabral Pucci is a printmaker and movement artist based in Toronto. Their practice is informed by a desire to connect with others through creative processes and sharing of lived experiences through a surrealist lens. A recent graduate of York University’s Visual Arts and Cultural Practices for Social Justice programs, Cass is currently studying at Centennial College’s Art Management program where they aspire to further develop their skills in order to contribute meaningfully to the arts and culture industry in Toronto as an arts administrator.
Cass Cabral Pucci
Production Manager
Remington North is a career Technical Director and Production Manager. He derives his professional mandate from the word facilitate via the Latin facile (easily). Making art is hard and Remington endeavours to make it easier, in some measure, for those working through their craft. Remington has worked with Tapestry Opera, Nightwood Theatre, J-Mar Electric, Canadian Stage, Crow's Theatre, The Theatre Centre, Soulpepper, Volcano Theatre, YES! Theatre, Why Not Theatre, Against the Grain, and many other companies in the GTA.
Remington North
Production Associate
Geoffrey is a multidisciplinary artist. An actor, Musician, Mover and Shaker. Technician, Technical Director, Production manager, Carpenter. A jack of all trades and a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one. Geoffrey is thrilled to be a part of the facilitation of Unfinish / Unfurl, before he heads off to the Blyth Festival Theatre for the summer where he will be performing in three shows including two original new Canadian plays.
Let's have an excellent week together at the Theatre Centre.
Geoffrey Armour
Learn more about the artists and partners on the event pages!