Presented by DanceWorks
Franco Boni Theatre, The Theatre Centre
June 18 - 20 2026
Peel Me asks you to peel back your layers. Will you? Can you? What sits just under the surface? And then under that? Through a series of vignettes, Peel Me’s performers eat and destroy grapefruits and fortune cookies, using mess as an access for catharsis. This experimental Western contemporary dance work examines nuanced states of control, release, greed and care, all while building a truly sensory experience.
Peel Me
Choreography: Eilish 미정 Shin-Culhane
Performers: Morgyn Aronyk-Schell, Steph Harkness, Hannah Shikatani, Shona Kiyama, Barbara Simms
Composer: Aidan McConnell
Costume Designer: Charlotte Carbone
Lighting Designer: Hannah Kirby
Stage Manager: Helin Gungoren
Production Manager: Sofia Fabiano
Access Support: Kass Pruss
Presented by DanceWorks in their Sweet Ephemera Double Bill alongside Jose Miguel ‘Miggy’ Esteban’s ‘pahinga ka muna’.
The Franco Boni Theatre, The Theatre Centre
June 18 - 20, 2026
With Support from Nova Dance and the National Ballet of Canada’s Open Space Programme. With Research Support from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council and the Toronto Arts Council.
TOURING PEEL MEPeel Me is a 50-minute experimental Western Contemporary dance work featuring five performers, with an audience in the round. This work was originally presented in Toronto by DanceWorks in a bill featuring queer creators of the Asian diaspora, and made its world premiere in June 2026 with a nearly sold out three-show run. We are now looking to tour this work as a full-length production, to share this physical, intimate and sensorial piece with further audiences.
Peel Me is a uniquely sensory work that uses mess as an access for catharsis. The performers take the audience on a journey as they eat, share and destroy both grapefruits and fortune cookies, while in tandem shedding their own layers, discovering the complicated vulnerability of being seen, and learning to embrace mess and disruption. The space is incredibly alive in this work, continually transforming alongside the performers, intensified by props that activate the senses. Being in the round allows the audience to share in this incredibly intimate world the work has created, and be alongside the performers as they evolve throughout the piece.
Peel Me
June 2026 Trailer
Photography Credits Kendra Epik, Video by Alli Carry