DanceWorks Toronto

Our deadline is approaching!
Help DanceWorks raise $10,000 by July 31, 2026. 

Our commitment at DanceWorks is to present dance, support artists, and create new points of entry for audiences to experience dance. But, we need your help to get there.

Moving Forward Together means your impact is felt through each of our programs. 
Our Signature Series, Dance Days with Harbourfront Centre School Visits, in-school workshops, artist talks, performance-related workshops, and free or discounted access tickets.

Your donation directly uphold and elevate dance presentation in Toronto.

$50 = supports accessible tickets and community access.
$100 = helps sustain workshops, artist talks, and public programs.
$200 = supports artist care and fair working conditions.
$500+ = helps DanceWorks move into the next season with strength and momentum.

Donate today!

📸 Kendra Epik

Image Description: Four dancers are mid-movement with their arms up in the air. One of the dancers in the middle of the image is spiraling their body over while lifting a bent leg in opposition to their raised arm.

Meet Emily Gualtieri and David Albert-Toth, co-choreographers of LABOUR

💥LABOUR takes the stage September 10-12 at The Theatre Centre.

More on PARTS+LABOUR:
Based in Montreal, PARTS+LABOUR is undeniably one of today’s bold and distinctive voices in contemporary dance. Since 2011, co-choreographers Emily Gualtieri and David Albert-Toth have created works that blur the boundaries between structure and spontaneity, weaving together the personal, poetic, and political.
Drawing on literature, mythology, and philosophy, they embrace tension over resolution, valuing the collision of ideas as a way to generate powerful narratives around community, solitude, and collective memory. Their work maintains an active presence locally, nationally, and internationally, with presentations in leading festivals and institutions while remaining deeply rooted in their community.
🎟️Tickets are on sale now! Tickets range from $34-54, fees included. Until July 31st, you can get $28 access tickets!
Presented with support from dance: made in canada / fait au canada Festival Mic Dee
Buy your tickets today!
📸 Robin Pineda Gould

A month ago, we ended the 2025/26 season with Sweet Ephemera.

We’re still buzzing with the energy of the audiences who witnessed Eilish 미정 Shin-Culhane and Jose Miguel ‘Miggy’ Esteban’s wonder unfold live.

We’re so grateful for everyone who joined us—whether you stayed for the touch tours, savoured the reception bites, arrived early for the opening installations, or attended our closing night artist talk. 

Of course, none of this would have been possible without the brilliant people behind the works, our dedicated production team here at DanceWorks, the support of The Theatre Centre, our Accessibility Coordinator Kass Prus, and the collaborators who brought Eilish and Miggy’s creative voices to life.

A profound thank you to all of our funders and partners who made this show possible at every step of the process:

Thank you to Toronto Dance Theatre, CanAsian Dance, The National Ballet of Canada and Nova Dance. 

Thank you to the Ontario Arts Council, the Toronto Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts. 

We are endlessly grateful for your investment in Canadian artists and live performance.

📸 Kendra Epik. Jennifer Robichaud.

Image Description: Sweet Ephemera choreographers Eilish 미정 Shin-Culhane and Jose Miguel ‘Miggy’ Esteban sitting in the lobby of The Theatre Centre opening night.

Peel Me’s dancers share grapefruit slices in a burnt orange hue light.

Image Description: A wooden mannequin on a box appears blurred in front of pahinga ka muna’s dancer.

Image Description: Two dancers in Peel Me hold an orange in the space between their shoulder and neck.

Image Description: pahinga ka muna’s dancer rolls over their left side over a handwoven mat.

Image Description: A dancer in Peel Me is caught mid movement in a lunge with their arms reaching out and over beside their body. Other dancers, as well as grapefruits, are seen laying in the background.

Image Description: pahinga ka muna’s dancer is kneeling down with a white blouse laid over the front of their body. Various objects surround them on the floor including tarot cards and boxes with items.

Image Description: A dancer in Peel Me holds grapefruits in their arms while sitting on floor. A

Announcing CoWorks 26/27!

CoWorks supports independent dance artists and collectives in the self-presentation of projects exploring the forces that shape our relationships with one another, our environments, and ourselves. 

Save the date and witness our CoWorks Series in performance during our 26/27 season!

✨Affect | Effect by JrifterS runs October 2-4, 2026 at Pia Bouman School for Ballet and Creative Movement.
Choreographed by Jen Hum and Sarah Kim, Affect | Effect is a contemporary dance and circus duet that investigates how we exist within spheres of influence, and how awareness of our environment shapes consciousness, relationships, and sense of self.

Swipe to see more!👉

Image Description and Photo Credit: Evan DeRushie
Two dancers are fully draped with long red fabric running across the stage. One dancer is standing with a hand and foot reaching out dynamically in opposite directions. The other dancer is crouched down under the fabric.

Announcing CoWorks 26/27!

CoWorks supports independent dance artists and collectives in the self-presentation of projects exploring the forces that shape our relationships with one another, our environments, and ourselves. 

Save the date and witness our CoWorks Series in performance during our 26/27 season!

✨HOLOBIONT by Blue Ceiling Dance runs November 27-28, 2026 at Toronto Heliconian Club.
Choreographed by Lucy Rupert with contribution from Yvonne Ng, HOLOBIONT is an ever-evolving work exploring the interconnection of multiple organisms through support, competition, sharing, and sacrifice.

Swipe to see more!👉

Image Description and Photo Credit: Zahra Saleki
A female presenting dancer in the foreground is stretching their arms out mid-movement. Another dancer is kneeling down in the background.

Announcing CoWorks 26/27!

CoWorks supports independent dance artists and collectives in the self-presentation of projects exploring the forces that shape our relationships with one another, our environments, and ourselves. 

Save the date and witness our CoWorks Series in performance during our 26/27 season!

✨Haut Haus: Open Haus runs February 27-28, 2027.
Created by Claudia Lachance, Brianna Maltais, Taryn Meyer,

Limited time $28 tickets for LABOUR ✨

LABOUR by PARTS+LABOUR
🗓️September 10-12, 2026
📍The Theatre Centre
🎟️ $28-$54 +fees
Presented with support from dance: made in canada / fait au canada Festival.

For a limited time, we’re offering Access Tickets to LABOUR by PARTS+LABOUR for just $28.

This is your chance to experience our first Signature Series show at an unbeatable price—but only a select number of seats are available at this rate.
This offer won’t be around forever. Buy your tickets today!

More about LABOUR:
Choreographed by Emily Gualtieri and David Albert-Toth, LABOUR is a frontal, physically demanding choreographic work performed by five firebrand, femme-identifying artists. They explore endurance, collective presence, and persistence through a deliberately simple choreographic motif: a two-step that is repeated, shifted, and charged over time.

Link in bio to claim your $28 ticket.

Discover DanceWorks’ Signature Series 2026/27

Our season explores the theme of INHERITANCE - what we leave behind, what remains with us, what we choose to carry forward, and what continues to shape us.

💥LABOUR runs September 10-12, 2026 at The Theatre Centre
Choreographed by Emily Gualtieri and David Albert-Toth, LABOUR is a frontal, physically demanding choreographic work performed by five firebrand, femme-identifying artists. They explore endurance, collective presence, and persistence through a deliberately simple choreographic motif: a two-step that is repeated, shifted, and charged over time.
Presented with support from dmicfac. 

🎟️Tickets are now on sale for LABOUR at the link in bio

💥INKOSI runs January 21-24, 2027 at Theatre Passe Muraille.
Choreographed by Pulga Muchochoma, Inkosi is a piece that explores the early life, imprisonment, and enduring legacy of Nelson Mandela through a fusion of traditional Southern African Movement and Contemporary Styles.

💥HUMAN runs April 15-17 and April 20-24, 2027 at The Terminal Theatre.
Choreographed by Hanna Kiel, Ryan Lee and Aaron Jan, HUMAN is a dance-theatre work performed by an all Asian Canadian cast, exploring memory, emotion, human connection, and the conscious choices that shape our lives.

💥Architecture of Violence runs May 13-15, 2027 at The Terminal Theatre.
Choreographed by Roshanak Jaberi and Karen Kaeja, Architecture of Violence confronts the tension between space and power through raw physicality and striking imagery, a visceral collision of movement and story.

pahinga ka muna has been a labour of care and love over these past few years. I am so grateful for the opportunity to develop this iteration, and to continue nurturing my creative relations with such incredible crip and q***r collaborators! Moreover, it is such a gift to present this piece alongside the magnificence of Eilish 미정 Shin-Culhane’s work—both choreographically and relationally as sharing our creations together through Sweet Ephemera has allowed us to explore the interdependent possibilities of q***r creative collaboration! 

Get tickets for Sweet Ephemera!
A double bill exploring q***r 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
⏰8:00 PM
📍The Theatre Centre
🎟️Tickets (sliding scale): $18–$40


Image Description:
1- Miggy’s face bathes in the sun’s rays as flower stems join their arms, emerging from the grass below them. The brown skin of their hands join lavender flowers in providing shade for the black fishes swimming down the golden river of their shirt.
2- Miggy’s body, draped in a white shirt, snakes up as if emerging from the blurred backdrop of an urban park. Staring at the camera, one hand rests behind their head, brown-skinned fingers extending into a forest of short black hair. The other arm reaches across their chest, burrowing into the negative space created by the bend of their elbow. 

Photo credit:
1- Kaylee McCullough
2- Alvin Collantes