Dance in Diaspora

A theme I want to explore in this dance festival is the concept of dancing in diaspora. To elaborate on this, I will focus on a specific sector of Asian American dance and culture: the Filipino American diaspora. In 2008, over 8 million Filipinos live overseas, including the millions who have taken on another nationality (Camroux, 2008). In 2018, National Geographic estimated that this number grew to over 10 million and growing (Almendral, 2018). More than 2 million of these Filipinos reside in the United States and make up the fourth-largest national-origin immigrant group after Mexicans, Indians, and Chinese (Davis and Batalova, 2023). The Filipino American identity is strong in the U.S., in great part due to American occupation of the archipelago from 1898 to 1946, in which American political, social, economic, and education system ideals were imposed on the burgeoning Filipino republic (Camroux, 2008, p. 11). Scholar David Camroux explores the language of "diaspora," writing, "Ultimately, a Filipino diaspora exists because social scientists and journalists (many of whom are Filipino-Americans) deem it exists." However, he explains that the Filipino state has adopted this language by "re-labelling, so to speak, the emigrant as diasporic... to make him or her an actor in the domestic economy" (2008, pp. 23-24). Ethnic and cultural identity for Filipino emigrants is often wrapped up in the fraught history of colonization. So, too, is Filipino dance.

The Philippine Statistics Authority estimates that 10% of the Filipino population works overseas, making the country "the largest exporter of labor with a government system in place to process their deployment" (Lu, 2023). Known as Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs), this subculture has spawned a divide in the archipelago's artistic industry between Overseas Performing Artists (OPAs) and "Petisyonados" - Filipinos who leave the arts scene in the Philippines to reunite with relatives abroad via various visa sponsorship routes (Perillo, 2020). This nuanced relationship between artistic works and cultures developed in the land of origin vs those developed in the diaspora, like in the U.S., is an important aspect to consider when presenting a festival of Asian American works. Perhaps this is a complication better saved for a curated exhibition specifically featuring Filipino creative works, but that is the beauty of my proposed permanent studio-theatre space. Nonetheless, the intricacies of Asian American identities and the various factors at play in developing these identities in the U.S. are important to explore. The museum can use the vehicle of dance and creative movement to explore immigration and global transnationalities with visitors of Asian descent or not. These themes of displacement, changing nationalities, and cultural identity development can be universal.

On stage, as H.M.A. Leow writes, "Authenticity is not the goal" (2023). Museum spaces do not just preserve the past. Although performing tradition is important, maintaining a static sense of authenticity implies that non-white, non-American, non-Western traditions are stuck in the past. The intention for my proposed space is to demonstrate that these artistic performances of heritage are alive, evolving, and developing with each new generation. Sociologist Samuel Gilmore writes that traditional dance produces senses of community, pride, and legitimacy when performed either for fellow Filipinos or for those outside the community (Gilmore, 2000). Traditional dances can also be inherited from subsequent generations, providing a tangible connection to a collective cultural past. Tinikling, for example, is a popular example of traditional dance 

Nonetheless, the impossibility of authenticity is not a priority. Authenticity suggests that the viewer or participant is an outsider deciding what is authentic or not, which negates the lived experiences of Filipinos who hold different relationships to their identity. To be Filipino does not necessarily mean to be in or from the Philippines directly any more, as OFW culture demonstrates. When I choreographed my undergraduate senior capstone dance "Hay Naku!" (above right), my intention was not to performatively demonstrate my Filipina heritage. Rather, I wanted to transform the iconic Tinikling dance into a new work that encompassed my multifaceted identity and multidisciplinary dance training. I worked with American dancers of various cultural backgrounds, and the rehearsal process acted as a space to discuss individual identity along with sharing my own cultural heritage. This process gave me the opportunity to explore my dancing heritage for the first time, as no one had taught me the dance before. My family learned as children in the Philippines, whereas I had to learn from stories and videos as a Filipina American. There are so many different narratives within the same cultural heritage, and this provides a rich foundation for a space like my proposed theatre/studio in the museum to flourish and help others form their own identities.

Above: images from "Hay Naku!", an interpretation of the traditional Filipino Tinikling dance (PC: Sean Elliot, Connecticut College)