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@drblessyl

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ᜊ᜔ᜎᜒᜐᜒᜎ᜔
Choreographer, Dancer, Visual Artist
Blessyl Studios | @buankissed
BABAElan, The Dream Weave
site-responsive work ,BKin, DC

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✨ Thank you for being part of 𝘌𝘱𝘩𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘢: 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘈𝘳𝘵 𝘞𝘦 𝘋𝘪𝘥𝘯’𝘵 𝘔𝘢𝘬𝘦 at Nuit Blanche Toronto (@nuitblancheto)

Our heartfelt thanks to choreographer Blessyl Buan (@drblessyl) and TDT’s company dancers for bringing this work to life, to the production team and volunteers for making it possible, and to everyone who showed up, participated, and left their mark on this shared experience.

Presented in collaboration with TDT and Nuit Blanche Toronto, this work was made more meaningful by all of you 🖤

EPHEMERA: THE ART WE DIDN’T MAKE
A participatory installation and durational performance

Concept, Artistic Direction, Installation Design and Fabrication, and Costume Styling by Blessyl Buan

Choreography by Blessyl Buan
In collaboration with and performed by Camil Bellefleur (@camiondiesel), Millina Fletcher aka FLETCH (@millinafletcher), Megumi Kokuba (@megumikokuba), Ry Kostyniuk (@rybration), Roberto Soria (@robertoooo0oo), Elizabeth Yip (@elizabeth__yip)

October 3-4, 2026
Old City Hall, Toronto

Photos by Ryan Buan (@ivivimedia)
#TorontoDanceTheatre #NuitBlancheToronto #ContemporaryDance #PublicArt #torontoarts

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Seeing Ephemera: The Art We Didn’t Make in the light of day has been an entirely different experience.

During Nuit Blanche, the installation came alive through a 12-hour ritual of movement, collective dreaming, and caretaking. Now, with the lights on and the space quiet, I can finally slow down and read the deeply touching responses left by the public.

Each leaf holds a piece of someone’s inner world — an idea, a longing, a creative dream that never had the chance to take form. Some are tender, some heartbreaking, some full of possibility.

I’m moved by what people have entrusted to this work, and grateful that these unrealized dreams have found a place to be witnessed.

🍃 Ephemera remains on view at Toronto’s Old City Hall until October 10. If you missed Nuit Blanche, or want to experience the installation in a different light, come see it before it leaves.

What is the art you didn’t make?

Ephemera: The Art We Didn’t Make
Created by Blessyl Buan
Presented at Nuit Blanche Toronto 2026 in collaboration with Toronto Dance Theatre

📍 Toronto’s Old City Hall
On view until October 10, 2026

#EphemeraTheArtWeDidntMake #NuitBlancheToronto #TorontoDanceTheatre #contemporaryart #blessylbuan

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A good city should occasionally make absolutely no sense.

Nuit Blanche, Toronto

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After having a film shown during last years Nuit Blanche it was great to get back to shooting Toronto’s all-night arts festival again this year.

Check out just some of the photos and more captured throughout the evening #nbTO26

All photos shot on Canon R6 Mark II’s and the B-Roll by @odetteansell on the Osmo Pocket 4P

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At 7AM, I joined the dancers for the final ritual of Ephemera: The Art We Didn’t Make.

After twelve hours of collecting, carrying, witnessing and caring for the art dreams entrusted to us by the public, we closed the creative-world portal we had opened the night before.

For twelve hours, these dancers had been the guardians of those dreams.

And in this final moment, we released them from that role—out of the ritual, out of the world we had built together, and back into regular life.

I wanted to enter the work with them at the end. To share the weight of what we had been carrying. To mark the labour of twelve continuous hours of performance and caretaking. And to celebrate what we had made together before allowing it to end.

What an honour it was to join the artists of Toronto Dance Theatre in this moment.

There was something deeply moving about standing among them as the world of Ephemera came to a close: surrounded by the traces of thousands of gestures, offerings and unrealized possibilities that had accumulated throughout the night.

Thank you to every person who trusted us with a piece of the art they didn’t make.

EPHEMERA: THE ART WE DIDN’T MAKE
Participatory installation + durational dance performance
October 3–4, 2026 · 7PM–7AM
Toronto’s Old City Hall
Nuit Blanche Toronto

Created & choreographed by Blessyl Buan

Presented in collaboration with Toronto Dance Theatre and Nuit Blanche Toronto @nuitblancheto

@torontodancetheatre dancer collaborators:
Camil Bellefleur @camiondiesel
Millina Aaliyah Fletcher (FLETCH) @millinafletcher
Megumi Kokuba @megumikokuba
Ry Kostyniuk @rybration
Roberto Soria @robertoooo0oo
Elizabeth Yip @elizabeth__yip

With gratitude to Toronto Dance Theatre for co-presentation, rehearsal and creation support, and to the performers, collaborators, volunteers and community participants who contributed to the evolving installation and performance.

And to everyone who answered:

What is the art you didn’t make?

Thank you for allowing us to hold your dreams for one night.

🎥 @feedaisy and @ivivimedia

#nuitblancheto #blessylbuan #contemporaryart #ephemeratheartwedidntmake

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walked past Old City Hall a million times and somehow never knew what it looked like inside!
Nuit Blanche finally got me through the doors

Ephemera: The Art We Didn’t Make by Blessyl Buan with Toronto Dance Theatre. Such a cool way to see this building for the first time.

#nuitblanchetoronto #nuitblanche #torontoart #oldcityhall #torontoevents

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@nuitblancheto is a free, annual, all-night contemporary art festival that transforms public spaces & cultural institutions across Toronto into spaces for contemporary art, running overnight from Oct 3–4.

If you weren’t able to catch it, here are 8 extended projects continuing from Mon Oct 5–Sat Oct 10, offering a lower-sensory experience when crowds are smaller & the pace is more relaxed.

I picked the ones that I think stand out most for families.

Project dates & times may vary within this period.

📸: Images via Nuit Blanche Toronto / respective artists

Nuit Blanche Toronto, Nuit Blanche 2026, Toronto art events, free things to do in Toronto, family-friendly Toronto events, things to do with kids in Toronto, Toronto with kids, Toronto family activities, Toronto weekend events, October events Toronto, contemporary art Toronto, public art Toronto, Toronto cultural events, family-friendly art events, Nuit Blanche extended projects, Nuit Blanche family guide, Toronto events this week, downtown Toronto events, free family activities Toronto, Toronto fall activities Cover
8 family-friendly Nuit Blanche extended projects in Toronto, running Monday October 5 to Saturday October 10, featuring contemporary art installations and public art experiences for families.

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11/10 experience. So beautiful & wholesome!!

Ephemera: The Art We Didn’t Make by Blessyl Buan @drblessyl, in collaboration with TDT Company Dancers @torontodancetheatre and Nuit Blanche Toronto @nuitblancheto.

One of the most beautiful experiences of the night. We got to write down our unfinished thoughts, ideas, dreams and things we never got around to creating, and watch as they became part of the artwork in real time.

#artreview #review #reviewtime #nuitblanche #toronto

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Tonight, this work leaves my hands.

For months, Ephemera: The Art We Didn’t Make has existed as an idea, a question, sketches, materials, conversations, rehearsals, uncertainty, and many, many hours of making.

Tomorrow, it becomes something else.

It belongs to the dancers who will inhabit it, to the people who will answer the question “What is the art you didn’t make?”, and to the vines that will slowly carry those unrealized works into the space.

Standing here at Old City Hall feels particularly meaningful — a place where decisions were once made about what mattered, what was valued, and whose voices were heard.

For one night, I want to make space for what didn’t get made.

The ideas interrupted by survival.
By caregiving.
By money.
By fear.
By time.
By circumstance.
By life.

And perhaps simply witnessing them is a kind of making.

Ephemera: The Art We Didn’t Make
Presented in collaboration with Toronto Dance Theatre
Nuit Blanche Toronto
October 3–4, 2026 • 7 PM–7 AM
Old City Hall, Toronto

Come leave a leaf. 🍃

Photo Ryan Buan @ivivimedia

#ephemeratheartwedidntmake #blessylbuan #contemporaryart #nuitblancheto #nuitblanche

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What does it mean to wild City Hall?

For Ephemera: The Art We Didn’t Make, Toronto Dance Theatre dancer collaborators move through Old City Hall — a civic space shaped by colonial systems that historically determined what mattered, who mattered, and what was worthy of being preserved.

For one night, we ask the public a different question:

What is the art you didn’t make?

The answers are written onto leaves, gathered by the dancers, witnessed, carried, and woven into the installation.

They hold traces of what wanted to be materialized but wasn’t given the chance — because of work, caregiving, survival, fear, money, migration, illness, expectation, lack of access, lack of time, or simply life.

Over twelve hours, these unrealized creative impulses accumulate inside Old City Hall.

The dancers become witnesses and caretakers of them, gradually transforming the architecture through movement, ritual, and the public’s contributions.

Perhaps the art we didn’t make still matters.

Perhaps being witnessed is one way of allowing it to exist.

Thank you to CP24 @cp24breakingnews for speaking with me about the work ahead of tonight’s Nuit Blanche Toronto. @nuitblancheto

EPHEMERA: THE ART WE DIDN’T MAKE
Participatory installation + durational dance performance
Created and choreographed by Blessyl Buan

Presented in collaboration with Toronto Dance Theatre and Nuit Blanche Toronto

Toronto Dance Theatre dancer collaborators:
Camil Bellefleur
Millina Aaliyah Fletcher (FLETCH)
Megumi Kokuba
Ry Kostyniuk
Roberto Soria
Elizabeth Yip

📍 Toronto’s Old City Hall
60 Queen St W
🗓 October 3–4, 2026
⏰ 7 PM–7 AM
Free / all night

With gratitude to @torontodancetheatre for co-presentation, rehearsal and creation support, and to the performers, collaborators, community participants at @mocatoronto , @cityofto for providing materials for the vines everyone who has entrusted their unrealized art to this evolving work.

#EphemeraTheArtWeDidntMake #NuitBlancheTO #TorontoDanceTheatre #contemporaryart

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What is the art you didn’t make?

The painting you imagined.
The dance you never started.
The book still living in your head.
The song, the film, the garden, the dress, the thing you wanted to make but didn’t—or couldn’t.

For EPHEMERA: The Art We Didn’t Make, I’m asking Toronto to share these unrealized creative dreams.

Your responses become part of the work.

Written onto leaves along a vine, they are gathered and carried into the installation by the dancers. Over the course of 12 hours, these individual offerings accumulate—filling the space with a collective archive of what might have been.

On our final day of rehearsal, the Toronto Dance Theatre dancer collaborators filled a vine of their own.

Soon, we’ll be asking you to add yours.

What is the art you didn’t make?

EPHEMERA: The Art We Didn’t Make
October 3–4, 2026 | 7 PM–7 AM
Toronto’s Old City Hall
Nuit Blanche Toronto

Created & choreographed by Blessyl Buan
Presented in collaboration with Toronto Dance Theatre @torontodancetheatre and Nuit Blanche Toronto @nuitblancheto

TDT Dance Collaborators:
Camil Bellefleur
Millina Aaliyah Fletcher (FLETCH)
Megumi Kokuba
Ry Kostyniuk
Roberto Soria
Elizabeth Yip

#nuitblancheto #nbto26 #ephemeratheartwedidntmake #durationalperformance

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A glimpse from tech.

EPHEMERA: THE ART WE DIDN’T MAKE

A site-responsive participatory installation and durational dance work transforming Toronto’s Old City Hall into a living archive of unfinished dreams, abandoned ideas, and unrealized expression.

Over 12 hours, choreography, sound, public offerings, and an evolving installation accumulate—creating a ritual of witnessing for the art we carry, the art we postpone, and the art that never had the conditions to be made.

October 3–4, 2026 | 7 PM–7 AM
Toronto’s Old City Hall | 60 Queen St W
Free as part of Nuit Blanche Toronto @nuitblancheto

Created & choreographed by Blessyl Buan
Presented in collaboration with Toronto Dance Theatre @torontodancetheatre and Nuit Blanche Toronto

TDT dancer collaborators:
Camil Bellefleur
Millina Aaliyah Fletcher (FLETCH)
Megumi Kokuba
Ry Kostyniuk
Roberto Soria
Elizabeth Yip

Come witness what emerges.

Video captured during technical rehearsal.

#ephemeratheartwedidntmake #nuitblancheto #nbto26 #whattosee

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