Sid Ryan Eilers performing Kiss the Stormy Sky Credit: Photo provided by EILERS Dance Theatre
Sid Ryan Eilers is a multidisciplinary dance artist with a 25-year career spanning Canada, Europe, and New York. Their work explores the intersections of choreography, social change, and identity, with a deep commitment to land-based practice, decolonization, and community connection through movement.
Rooted in anti-oppressive frameworks, their artistic practice acknowledges the impact of white-centric, patriarchal, racist, and homo/transphobic systems while embracing performance as a space for personal and collective transformation.
Eilers has performed and presented work internationally, collaborating with artists such as Shahar Binyamini, Peggy Baker, Andrea Nann, and Kathleen Rea.
Their choreographic research is shaped by Conscious Bodies Practice by Dreamwalker Dance Company with Andrea Nann (somatic movement) and mentorship with Shahar Binyamini (Gaga movement, via the OAC Chalmers Professional Development Grant, 2021).
They have held residencies at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, Crow’s Theatre, and Open Space with the National Ballet of Canada.
In 2014, Eilers founded Aeris Körper Contemporary Dance, leading the company for a decade while creating immersive, site-specific works and collaboratively launching initiatives like the annual dance festival, HERE&NOW.
In 2024, they transitioned to independent creation by founding EILERS Dance Theatre, a company dedicated to performances that center Trans and Queer identity, spirituality, and critical dialogue through choreography and inter arts storytelling.
Their choreographic process embraces risk, intuition, and embodied intelligence. Through studies in Sharing Privilege (Robin Lacambra), workshops with Elders at Dodem Kenosha, and continued learning with Righting Relations and Neighbour 2 Neighbour, Eilers is committed to deconstructing and rebuilding ways of thinking, being, and creating.
Confronting internalized shame and embracing vulnerability, they explore movement as a tool for questioning expectations, navigating discomfort, and reimagining performance as a living, evolving conversation.
Their solo dance theatre work, Kiss The Stormy Sky, toured Ontario and British Columbia in 2025. As an educator, they teach at Canada’s National Ballet School and lead TRANScendARTS, a creative initiative supporting gender-diverse children. Their teaching practice emphasizes rigor, creativity, and inclusivity, empowering dancers to engage with movement as a form of self-expression, activism, and transformation.
Today, Sid Ryan Eilers joins me on Small Change to talk about visibility for independent artists, the realities of arts funding, and the collective imagination needed to sustain creative life in these very challenging times.
We discuss Kiss The Stormy Sky, Sid’s solo dance-theatre performance tracing four generations of the Eilers side of their family from the Russian Revolution and WWII to present day trans survival. We also look at how personal history and intergenerational storytelling shape their choreographic process.
Fancy Cat performers Credit: Photo provided by EILERS Dance Theatre
Despite being founded in 2024, EILERS Dance Theatre has been creating touring projects, youth programs like TRANScendARTS, and has a vision to expand its global impact. But all of that artistic creativity has to be balanced against the often harsh realities of deadlines and funding. We find out how Sid accomplishes that.
Ireland will be providing 2,000 artists with a monthly Basic Income of $1,500 Cdn starting in 2026. Find out more here.
Having served on numerous juries and having witnessed extraordinary proposals that never received funding, Sid shares her take on how public arts funding is distributed and what voices or stories tend to get left out.
Unfortunately, funding of important creative projects is not going to improve given the current Canadian trend towards deep austerity budgets. Cuts to grants, limited operational funding and unstable support for small organizations means creatives must dig deep to remain motivated in these deeply dark times. Sid and I discuss what a truly equitable funding ecosystem looks like.
We also discuss the difference a Basic Income could make in the lives of artists — as well as the rest of Canadians struggling to make ends meet.
Sid’s work is radical, embodied, artist led and often connected with ritual, healing, and community. Sid shares the role the arts — especially dance — play in collective transformation during times of social and political upheaval.
And, because we all need something to look forward to, we end today’s podcast with Sid telling Small Change listeners what to expect from EILERS Dance Theatre in 2026.
Find more about EILERS Dance Theatre here.
Donate to EILERS Dance Theatre GoFundMe HERE.
Follow EILERS Dance Theatre on Instagram and Facebook
And, check out videos of previous performances here.
Listen to my August 2024 interview with Sid Ryan Eilers, Sid Ryan Eilers knows every body houses profound stories, when we discussed how trauma impacted her mother’s life, Sid’s own life and informed the ways Eilers’ work engages folks who often are not included in dance performances.
Thanks to everyone who read today’s article and listened to my podcast. With your financial support, a little Nicoll can make a lot of change.
You can also find my work in Public Parking Publication, herizons, rabble.ca and on my Wix site. Follow me on Instagram, X @doreennicoll61, Bluesky @nicollneedschange and Facebook.
Music: Real Estate by UNIVERSFIELD is licensed under a Attribution 4.0 International License. freemusicarchive.org.
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