About Sid Ryan Eilers
I am a dance artist working in Ohròn:wakon/Hamilton, Ontario. I create contemporary/experimental dance works for live audiences. The culture I inhabit is inherently white-centric, patriarchal, racist, and homo/transphobic. I acknowledge the effect on myself and engage in anti-oppressive work to heal on a personal level. While this healing exists in a therapeutic realm, the realizations lead to artistic energy. I aim to bring performative creations to be a catalyst for critical dialogue. Through the course Sharing Privilege, workshops with Elders at Dodem Kenosha, Righting Relations and Neighbour 2 Neighbour, I am committed to rebuilding my way of thinking, being and doing. My creative process has developed through work with Andrea Nann in Conscious Bodies Method and mentorship with Israeli choreographer Shahar Binyamini. As my process shifts to express the intersections of my identity (white, settler, queer, non-binary, single parent, Hamiltonian, child, sibling, artist, #metoo survivor, neighbour, choreographer) I notice my internalized shame. I am learning to lean gently into this shame; it is risky. I am learning to release the notion that there is a “right way” to create, to perform, to be.
