About Us
History
In 2023 Pushmakers was selected as one of Dancemakers Guest Curator projects. From 2023-2024 Pushmakers was primarily a research and thought residency connecting with manual wheelchair dancers across Canada. We were curious about the resources that wheelchair dancers had, and what would help support their practice. From this work we held an industry town hall in 2024, and also filmed a documentary about the community in the summer of 2024.
After 2 years of working with a small cohort of wheelchair dancers across Canada, Pushmakers now offers classes and events. We will be hosting Cripping the Past in September 2025 and we will be launching a series of dance classes in Fall/Winter 2025.
We also recently wrapped production on an educational series called Wheels That Move! which focuses on foundational knowledge about wheelchairs themselves for wheelchair movers and those who work with them. This series will be released in late 2026.
Pushmakers Team
Shay Erlich
Shay Erlich (they/them) is a disability justice world builder, artist, and disability educator whose work imagines a disability-centered world where disabled people are empowered to love themselves and live free from stigma, shame, and ableism.
Shay’s artistic work sits at the intersection of storytelling, dance, and emergent technologies. Their dance films have been included as part of the Together! Disability Film Festival (2023), Dance Camera West (2024), the Contact Dance International Film Festival, the ReelAbilities Film Festival (Toronto), and the Chinook Festival. They have also performed with Propeller Dance, Political Movement and as part of the InSitu Multi-Arts Festival.
Shay is the Founder and Co-Director of Pushmakers – a national initiative focused on excellence in manual wheelchair dance. They are also the Founder of Ready For Access, a disability experience firm that offers professional development, workshops, and co-design to create superbly accessible experiences for disabled people. They also currently serve as a disability arts curator with the National Creation Fund.
Paulina Drohomyrecky
Paulina Drohomyrecky (they/them) is a disability justice focused multidisciplinary artist and patient partner, whose work focuses on making art that reflects disabled experience, and centering the disabled experience in medical research.
After obtaining a PhD in immunology, they pivoted to dance, visual and textile art, and community arts facilitation. They have worked with Shay on their dance films in a producing capacity, as well as having been a long time participant in Toronto’s contra dance community and performed with Propeller Dance at Fall for Dance North 2024. Most recently, they were a participant in The Bentway’s production of Walking:Holding, as well as the associated portrait series.
Paulina is the Co-Director of Pushmakers – a national initiative focused on excellence in manual wheelchair dance. They also currently serve on a Steering Committee for a Long COVID Web research project, as well as working on other patient partnership projects.
