Pinay challenges Euro art scene with hyper-masculine 'Macho Dancer'

The dancer strikes a pose - hand to forehead, biceps bulging, pelvis pushed forward. The next moment, down on all fours, a sexual act is near simulated, the liquid undulations both provocative and evocative. There is much slithering and come-hither looks in the performance called “Macho Dancer”, which Filipina dancer Eisa Jocson is taking around Europe's performance-art scene. And the unexpected gender mash-up, given that the macho dancer was always a male-muscled boy-toy, brings to movement some unexpected but enlightening ideas on sexuality. In “Macho Dancer”, Jocson emulates a dance unique to young males in seedy bars of the Philippines. First performed in spring 2013 under the residency and support of Workspacebrussels and Beursschouwburg, it aims to challenge “our perception of sexuality and questions gender as a tool for social mobility.” “With the performance I wish to share and give physical shape to my questions about the phenomenon 'macho dance' and all that it brings along,” said Jocson in the Workspacebrussels website. “I become a copy of a copy,” she added, “I am taking a hyper-masculine vocabulary of movement in order to challenge gender stereotypes.” Jocson explained that the bars where the macho dance is performed inhabits patriarchal structures “specific to the Philippines, but also points at patterns and stereotypes of gender and sexuality that are in place on a much larger scale.” Roles are simply reversed in macho bars, with the male objects the subject of consumption for clients. Jocson declared, “Macho clubs and their activities are not a space of resistance, but a marketplace to consume male objectification.” “Beyond the context of the Philippines,” she said, “I want to challenge our conceptions of gender, sexuality and seduction.” Her decision to create her performances was also influenced by a need to challenge, “to transform or to eventually destroy my image as a woman, as well as my image as an objectified pole dancer. To show that gender can be seen differently, or even can be objectified differently.” Shift from pole dancing In the Workspacebrussels page, Jocson said that Macho Dancer is a direct sequel to her previous work, Death of the Pole Dancer. “The pole dancer reincarnates as a macho dancer. The destruction of one persona gives birth to another,” said Jocson. Jocson revealed how she got into pole dancing in an interview with Cobra.be, a Dutch art website. “It was during my last year in university, and my aunt invited me to join a pole dance class. When I started it, I didn't stop,” said Jocson, who was featured in the website for her piece, Up, which she performed at a beach in Oostende for the 2012 Dansand! Festival. Jocson believes that pole dancing has great potential for artistic discourse. During her Asia-Europe Generalists in Sojourn (AEGIS) residency, she “probed themes such as sexuality and space, sexualisation of culture, sociology of the body, normalization and surveillance.” The struggle with sexuality is apparent in her works. When asked why she chose pole dancing as her primary medium of expression, she said in the same interview with Cobra.be, “I think it's [pole dancing] very feminine and masculine at the same time. You need strength and stamina, and you gain this by time and discipline.” “At the same time, it's very sensual and soft; so I think this tension between this very feminine way of being and a very masculine physical exertion of energy and strength is a very good combination, and I'm very attracted to it,” explained Jocson. The Japayuki Project and other works Jocson is an associate director and senior instructor at Pole Academy Philippines. She graduated from Fine Arts at the University of the Philippines, Diliman. Her other works include Stainless Borders, which started in Manila and expanded to other countries under her AEGIS residency, and Death of the Pole Dancer, commissioned by the In Transit Performance Art Festival 2011 during her residency in Nadine. Macho Dancer is touring Europe and is featured in performance festivals such as ImPulsTanz in Vienna, Nooderzon in Groningen, Tanz im August in Berlin, and Theater Spektakel in Zurich. After Macho Dancer, Jocson is set to form the Japayuki Project, a research project on Filipina hostesses in Japanese night bars. — Rie Takumi/DVM, GMA News