Sylvie Bouchard is a remarkable dance artist with a long career of performance with some of the best companies and choreographers in Canada and abroad, a choreographer and Artistic Director of BoucharDanse, and the founding Artistic Director of Dusk Dances, a magical festival of dance performed in public parks throughout Ontario, in Quebec and B.C. and viewed by thousands of people every summer for 33 years.

In December 2025 Sylvie’s life suddenly changed. As she was preparing a new work for its world premiere and touring, she came down with what seemed like a flu. It quickly worsened, she could barely eat, became bedridden and emaciated, even as she saw many doctors and underwent numerous tests and imaging. Eventually, Sylvie was hospitalized and after 4 long months, has finally been diagnosed with a massive bacterial infection called Mycobacterium Abscessus (NTM) in the family of Tuberculosis.

“It has created a large lesion that has filled with fluid. As the doctors put it, I have a big hole in the right upper quadrant of my lung. Mycobacterium Abscessus is a very severe infection that requires very specialized treatment. I am now being tested on 3 antibiotics, including 2 that are given to me intravenously, and the doctors think a full recovery is possible. The duration of the treatment will be 6 months to a year, depending on how my body reacts to the meds. My body has become extremely weak and emaciated, and regaining my physical strength will also take a year of very hard work. This situation is very scary as the infection is extremely serious and will demand my absolute focus towards recovery. My goal is to be able to return to my passion, which is dance.”

Sylvie has just been moved from Mount Sinai Hospital to a complex care and rehabilitation hospital. The hospitals can only keep patients for a limited time, so in mid-July she will be discharged to her home where she will need to hire daily caregivers to help her with basic needs; her intravenous medications, cooking a special diet, shopping, cleaning and physio, to support her evolving recovery over the coming year.

There is no ongoing and comprehensive rehabilitation support provided by our healthcare system for these kinds of situations, so it has been and will continue to be very expensive. For a single person working as an independent dance artist, this has been devastating both to her health and finances. Please support Sylvie at this difficult time. Your donations, small or large, will help her recover from the past 6 months of illness and the next 6 months to a year of complex care and recovery.

Sylvie is one of the most focused, determined and gifted dancers we know and we all want and fully expect her to dance again. I am organizing this Go Fund Me for Sylvie on behalf of a small group of her friends and colleagues who have kept her alive through all of this. – denise fujiwara