Q: How did you begin dancing?

I’m Filipino. I was born in Singapore, and then we moved to the states. I’m like every immigrant child. My mom put me into a classical ballet school in Canada when I was very little. Once we moved to Massachusetts, I joined another classical ballet school. I was in and out of a love for dance. I got into the Ailey program and that solidified my love for dance, that maybe I could make this into something and become a professional. Through high school and college years, I connected with dance at a higher level and wanted to use it to push back on boundaries of the cultural system that we are living in now. I wanted to talk about identity and what that means to me as a Filipino person through dance. Now I dance with Bill T Jones, and am very happy to be here. I also do my own work on the side and freelance with other artists as well. 


Q: What has dance taught you that you have applied to your everyday life and how you engage in the world?
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Stability and resilience. Those two things are very important at this time. Working with Bill I’ve learned about the idea of being raw and radically honest—being my most genuine, authentic self, as a person and in dance. I think with dance we add a lot of emotion and affection, and even in life, we can put on a lot of masks. How can the rawness in our bodies relate to the rawness in our personalities? That’s what I relate to in dance.


Q: Has dance helped you overcome any hardships in your life?
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When I was younger, my parents divorced. My dad came out. I really used dance as a way to stay sane and have a social life. My best friends came from dance, my discipline came from dance, allowing me to keep the structure of my life together as much as possible. Last year, I came out as well. The relationship between how dance has shaped me to be able to take that step helped me realize that dance was that friend that was with me, and is currently with me, as I navigate that new space.


Q: What other interests and passions do you have outside of dance? Or what is something that inspires you to do your craft?
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I really like minimalism. When I make work, I like to design the space to be minimal. I also model on the side and do art collaborations. I’ve really been focusing on pleasure-seeking and what that means to me. I really love reading, cooking, and being outside. I like moving—hiking and walking. All of those things inform my dance.


Q: What have been some challenges in your pre professional and professional career?
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I think my insecurities in comparing myself to others have been my biggest obstacle. Also, coming to terms with the fact that someone else succeeding doesn’t dampen my life. Growing up, I was insecure about the way I looked and being a minority in ballet––I developed such an insecurity in ballet and seeing other people get roles I wanted. I had to learn to be happy for them and still appreciate myself despite the competition.


Q: How do you think dance can be used as a platform for social justice? If so, how? and/or Have you used your art form to make a difference?

I think dance is one of the best platforms for social justice. Your body is affected at the very core by injustices that happen to you. Social injustice is the group feeling of people that are hurt by an injustice. We are all threads in that fabric. What does it mean to look at another person and recognize they hold injustice in their body? You can see it. You can literally see it in the body. For everyone in that fabric, creating movement from these bodies shows social injustice right in front of us. The moving body is social injustice in movement. When you create or dance a work that aligns with your value system, or when you tap into something that is greater than you or relates to somebody else, that synchronicity is pushing back on this social justice. Or at the very least, you’re commenting on what is happening in the world. Even if you think you are not doing it, the fact that you’re placing your body in a space comments on the greater picture of what is around you. I think that’s the basis for how art is a platform. Second, I think good art and powerful art is the kind of art that comments on something subtly. At the same time, it pushes against something. You see something and it impacts you because it touches you individually, and you realize that the experience is pushing you to shift your ideals.


Q: How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected you as a performing artist? (community, financially, initial reactions, company shift, online class, emotions, initial cancellation reaction)

It shifted everything. We were supposed to have a full two-week premiere at the Park Avenue Armory. I worked on the piece for two years with the other people who joined the company at the same time as me, but the entire company worked on this piece for three years. In NYC, you don’t hear about YEARS of creation. You hear, like, maybe a couple months, here’s a show––then it's done. But no, this was two years of work. We were supposed to have a premiere in the middle of April. It was cancelled. Freelance gigs were also all cancelled because there couldn’t be any public events and group limits. 

I was on tour with Bill and the tour was cancelled on the third day. I mean, we could all feel it. We were like, “Why are we here, it’s scary…” One of our musicians found out someone he was in contact with before the tour tested positive for coronavirus. Our company manager basically said that we had to go home. The company amazingly sent everyone home and paid for all the expenses. I’ve been in Massachusetts ever since. I also teach Pilates on the side. Of course, all the studios are closed, so I have to teach my old clients, how to use Zoom first, and then teach online. It’s my income right now, which I'm grateful for, but it's not the same. What’s happening with Bill’s company is–– the company is under an organization called New York Live Arts. We’re being paid until the end of the season, thankfully, which is amazing. If not, I would be so screwed. With that, we’re working from home. We have weekly meetings with Bill and Janet (our artistic director) and they give us tasks every week or so. He gives us a phrase and then we share it on Instagram, or we learn phrases so that when we get back, we can show them how the 2D translates into the 3D. But yeah, it’s really hard for me to be away from NYC right now.


Q: What other interests have you delved deeper into during this time?

I’ve gone back to playing piano, which I used to play when I was a kid. This time has been beautiful. I’ve just been creating to see what I can make. I’m doing silly improv, creating music compositions with piano and voice that I am just trolling around with—not recording but just seeing what I can make. Reading a lot and trying new things, doing things without rushing and taking my time to decide with my intentions what I do; like whether or not to see a client. Happy hour, with intention. Seeing my friends if I want to, but with intention. Everything I choose to do is with very set intentions so that when I do it, I am fully present and when I arrive, I am there for the person I am talking to, or for myself. That has been the most beautiful part of this whole thing. 


Q: Using the idea of “worldmaking” how do you imagine the performing arts world after the pandemic? (Worldmaking: How you can re-imagine the world in your own terms, the way you want it to be. Using this tool one can construct new worlds and write themselves into narratives that have excluded them and systems that have disabled them.)

It would be a beautiful thing and a necessary reality for the dance world to have true governmental support. We should focus on how the dance world can connect to folks with money, with corporations or businesses that have money. Not just for the funds, but how can the dance world better connect to people who are not dancers? How can we as artists, entrepreneurs and intelligent people in mind and body use our skills to bring important art to the people that don’t necessarily watch or care for dance, without it being cheap, without it being sold jazzy, and with sparkles? How can we allow depthful art to be in the realm of popular culture, respected and with integrity. For me it’s audience building. We need to teach audiences how to watch dance. I think dancers need to learn their worth, as well. How can we teach dancers in programs to know the worth of their bodies and minds rather than shaming them? Additionally, if we can make more funds available, we will be able to make fuller, better art. I also think a dancer’s union would help for smaller companies, emerging artists; choreographers, and freelance dancers––they really are the ones that take the fall when things like this happen. My number one would be for dancers to learn their respect of self––how can that be ingrained in the fabric of our world, the dance world? It is crazy that it takes us until we are 40 years old to realize we do not need to look perfect all the time. There also needs to be an open-border mentality with more sharing of ideas. How can musical theater and theater share with the contemporary or concert dance scene? How can these worlds mesh a bit more? How can ideas and improvements in each be shared in a way that is more friendly towards each other?  Also, inclusion of gender and more fluid gender norms. Like, why––why such hard gender norms?