I've been thinking about growth. Not growth as success.

Growth as the uncomfortable thing that living organisms insist on doing.

Gardens don't ask permission before they bloom. Trees don't apologize for taking up more space each year. Children grow whether we are ready for it or not. As I watch my child approach their 16th birthday I am amazed - how vulnerable and powerful it is to grow. 

Every June we celebrate growth. Pride Month arrives. Summer begins. The days become longer. The world feels fuller, greener, louder.

But no one really talks about what growth feels like while it's happening.

Growth is awkward.

It asks more of us than we thought we could give.

It stretches us beyond familiar edges. It asks us to release old ways of working, old stories about ourselves, and sometimes even versions of who we thought we needed to be.

And perhaps most unexpectedly...

Growth makes us visible.

Over the past few weeks I've experienced extraordinary kindness from strangers, artists, children, and community members. I've also experienced online and verbal harassment simply for existing as a queer and gender-expansive person.

As painful as those moments can be, they've reminded me of something I hadn't considered before.

Visibility is evidence that we are no longer hiding.

That doesn't make hostility acceptable. But it does remind me why creating spaces rooted in joy, embodiment, imagination, and belonging matters so so so much.

This summer feels like a season of growth for EILERS Dance Theatre.

Not because everything is finished.

Because so much is becoming.

Our organization is growing. You can read all about our growth here. 

Our artistic collaborations are expanding into new areas.

Our community continues to meet different communities.

I'm learning to delegate more, trust more, and allow this organization to become something larger than my own two hands can carry. It is exhilarating and vulnerable. 

Maybe that's what healthy growth always feels like.

This Saturday, June 27th, we'll gather at the George Chuvalo Neighbourhood Centre Pride Festival in Toronto.

We'll perform an excerpt from my newest (and oldest) work.

We'll meet neighbours.

We'll launch the next chapter of our fundraising campaign. (We have some very fun journals and t-shirts available in the coming weeks). 

We'll celebrate alongside an incredible community of artists, organizers, and families.

I hope you'll come say hello.

Not simply to watch a performance, but to participate in the kind of community we're trying to build.

Because every project we create begins with the same question:

How can we help more people feel like they belong?

That question continues shaping everything we do.

It lives inside Queer Conscious Moving Bodies, where adults gather to reconnect with their bodies through movement, play, and reflection.

It lives inside TRANScendARTS, where trans and gender-expansive children are invited to imagine, create, and move without shrinking themselves.

It lives inside Fancy Cat, our joyful dance-theatre musical celebrating imagination, creativity, and gender-expansive childhoods, as we prepare for our July residency and showcase at the Children and Youth Performance Conference at Young People's Theatre.

And it lives inside Boy Q: Negotiations in Flesh and Rubber, which continues evolving before travelling to RedSapata Dance Centre in Linz, Austria this September for its next stage of development and premiere.

Sometimes people ask what EILERS Dance Theatre is really trying to build.

Yes it is evocative and memorable performances, transformational workshops, challenging and joyful classes. 

We're trying to grow places where people can become more themselves.

Every conversation.

Every rehearsal.

Every generous act.

Every person who believes this work matters.

You are helping this organization grow.

We need your support to make this next season possible. You can support through donation to Chimera Dance Theatre's FRESH FUND. An initiative that directly sustains queer and trans-centred creation, youth programming, accessible community workshops, and future touring opportunities.

Donate Here

Summer at EILERS Dance Theatre

🌈 George Chuvalo Neighbourhood Centre Pride Festival

Saturday, June 27

Come visit the EILERS Dance Theatre booth!

• Meet our team and collaborators
• Learn about upcoming performances and community programs
• Pick up free postcards and Fancy Cat stickers
• Learn about our fundraising campaign

✨ Live Performance
Approximately 12:30 pm

An excerpt from Boy Q: Negotiations in Flesh and Rubber featuring Sid Ryan Eilers, Vincent Enorme, Kaela Willey, and additional collaborators.

📍 George Chuvalo Neighbourhood Centre
50 Sousa Mendes Street, Toronto

🌿 Queer Conscious Moving Bodies

A monthly movement practice for queer, trans, non-binary, and allied community members.

No dance experience necessary.

Come move, reflect, play, and connect.

Upcoming Dates
Sunday, July 12
Sunday, August 23

The Fifth Dance
Sliding Scale

Register Here

🌈 TRANScendARTS

Creative movement classes for trans and gender-expansive children continue to grow.

Professional artists facilitate joyful, affirming spaces where imagination, creativity, and belonging come first.

We're excited to continue dreaming toward expanding this program across Ontario.

Learn More

🎭 Fancy Cat

This July, our creative team heads into residency before presenting Fancy Cat at the Children's and Youth Performance Conference at Young People's Theatre.

A joyful dance-theatre musical celebrating imagination, belonging, and gender-expansive childhoods, Fancy Cat will begin touring in 2027.

🌍 Boy Q: Negotiations in Flesh and Rubber

Development continues throughout the summer before the work travels to RedSapata Dance Centre in Linz, Austria, where it will be developed further and premiere this September.

We're excited to continue discovering where this physically charged new work wants to take us.

Sometimes I wonder what we'll look back on years from now.

Will we remember the grants?

The performances?

The festivals?

Maybe.

But I suspect what we'll remember most are the people.

The child who danced for the very first time without apologizing.

The stranger who became a collaborator.

The conversation after a performance that changed how someone understood themselves.

The moment we decided to become a little more ourselves.

Perhaps that is all growth really is.

Not becoming someone else.

Remembering who we have been all along.

If this work has ever made you feel a little less alone...

If it has reminded you that your body belongs to you...

If it has helped you imagine a world with more curiosity, more courage, more joy, and more room for all of us...

I hope you'll help us continue growing.

Every donation through Chimera Dance Theatre's FRESH FUND helps create performances, workshops, youth programs, and gathering spaces where people don't have to earn their belonging before they arrive.

Donate Here

This newsletter began with a thought about gardens.

Perhaps that's where I'll end it.

A garden is never built in a single season.

Someone plants.

Someone waters.

Someone tends.

Someone else, years later, sits in the shade.

Thank you for helping us plant something that we may never fully live to see.

I hope you sing this summer.

I hope you dance.

I hope you become just a little more yourself.

And I hope, whenever the world asks you to shrink, you remember that living things were never meant to apologize for growing.

With love,

Sid Ryan Eilers (they/them)
Artistic Director
EILERS Dance Theatre