ABSTRACT
This chapter chronicles the author’s journey as an arts and cultural worker, beginning at the Cultural Center of the Philippines, where she witnessed dance history being made from behind the curtains, to curating interdisciplinary collaborations that traverse the spheres of performance and museums across Asia and Europe. Her observations and reflections introduce a development - or counterpoint - to the landscape of Philippine dance, which has predominantly been oriented towards ballet throughout its 50-year history: the exceptional decade-long international career of Eisa Jocson. This Filipino choreographer, dancer, and artist is an outlier in the country’s dance scene. She constantly bends the strict rules of the barre to question, search, build, and articulate a dance lexicon that is her own.
