EILISH SHIN-CULHANE
b i o g r a p h y
Eilish 미정 Shin-Culhane is a Tkaronto-based queer artist of Korean and European descent. She received her BFA in Dance from Marymount Manhattan College in New York City. Her work plays with theatricality, rigour, and humour in order to highlight human connection and adversity. She wields absurdity as a method of discovering genuine authenticity.
Eilish feels equal parts dancer and choreographer - both mover and maker. As a dancer, Eilish has had the privilege to perform in works by Peter Chu, Bill T. Jones, Nicole von Arx, Nova Bhattacharya, Frog in Hand, Anton Lachky, and Adam Barruch. She has additionally trained across the United States, Europe, and Canada with Johannes Wieland, Anouk van Dijk, Ryan Mason, Isadora Wolfe, and Andrea Miller.
Eilish's choreographic work oscillates between highly physical and simple pedestrian gestures, in order to find a cohesive movement modality to develop narrative. Her work finds root in text, emotional expression, and heightened physicality. Eilish was commissioned by Peggy Baker Dance Projects to develop a new site-specific work in Fall 2022. She has additionally presented choreography at NYU’s ‘Choreofest’, Aeris Körper's 'PROSPECTS', and Dance Ontario’s ‘Show & Share Sessions’. Her choreographic mentors have included Bonnie Kim and Elisabeth Motley. Eilish’s work has been directly supported by the National Ballet’s Open Space Programme, the Toronto Arts Council, and the Canada Council for the Arts.
RECENTLY
recent & upcoming performances, projects, education
STOP!?
COMMISSIONED BY PEGGY BAKER DANCE PROJECTS
Choreography
September 2022
Lisgar Park
Commissioned by Peggy Baker Dance Projects, Eilish recently premiered her site-specific work, entitled 'Stop!?'. She is deeply grateful for the support from Peggy's team, the Toronto Arts Council, and the Canada Council for the Arts.
Stop!? explores our inability to truly experience rest, speaking to this compulsion - be it external or internal - to keep moving forward. Utilizing laughter as a coping mechanism, the dancers embody this overwhelming sense of restlessness as they navigate their external world.
SVĀHĀ
NOVA DANCE
Performance
September 2022
Bluma Appel Theatre
Eilish recently had the opportunity to perform in Nova Bhattacharya's new work. Alongside a cast of 20 diverse dancers, Svāhā! is a celebration of dance as a revitalizing ritual that brings us closer together. It is an offering of movement, music, colours and sensations.
PEEL ME - WORKING TITLE
OPEN SPACE RESEARCH RESIDENCY
Choreography
November 2022
National Ballet's Open Space Programme
Eilish had the joy of workshopping a brand new work in a week-long residency at the National Ballet. Alongside wonderful collaborators, Eilish explored the use of food within dance - and its added implications.
In the new work, working title Peel Me, the dancers use grapefruits and fortune cookies to sensorially develop the narrative - using theatricality, joy, and humour to ask what it means to be made to be destroyed.
TOTUM LIFE SCIENCE
Pilates
Eilish is on faculty at Totum Life Science, located in the Rosedale area of Toronto. Offering 1-one-1 Pilates privates, with a focus on alignment, mobility, and stability. Click here to book.
