Eisa Jocson & Venuri Perera

Eisa Jocson is a visual artist and choreographer based in Manila. She came to contemporary dance through pole dance. In her pieces, she explores the entanglements of ‘gender’, ‘affective labour’, ‘migration’ and ‘corporeality’. She has explored the economies of pole dancing, appropriated macho dancing – a form of hypermasculine erotic dance practiced primarily in Filipino gay bars – and examined the expressive and movement vocabulary of Disney characters such as Snow White, a role denied to Filipino performers in amusement parks. She regularly presents her pieces at renowned theatres and international festivals in Asia and Europe, such as Tanz im August, TPAM Yokohama, Zu?rcher Theaterspektakel and Frankfurter Positionen. In 2018 she received the Culture Centre of the Philippines 13 Artists Award and in 2019 the Hugo Boos Asia Art Award.

Venuri Perera is a choreographer, performance artist, curator and educator from Colombo. Exploring the power dynamics of visibility and opacity, she attempts to destabilise how we perceive the ‘other.’ Her solo and collaborative creations deal with violent nationalism, patriarchy, immigration, colonial heritage and class and were invited to festivals/biennales/symposia across Europe, South and East Asia, Middle East and Africa since 2008. She has closely collaborated with choreographers Geumhyung Jeong (SK) (Theatre Spektakel/ Monsoon Australia) Natsuko Tezuka (JP) (Kyoto Experiment/SIFA Singapore) Venuri conceived and curated the projects of the Colombo Dance Platform (2015-2020, Goethe-Institut) and is committed to continue creating support networks for the independent dance scene in Sri Lanka. A graduate of DAS Theatre, she is currently based in Amsterdam.