By Cally Yu, Hong Kong independent writer and cultural event planner
Eisa Jocson is more than a dancer who simply pursues the aesthetics. She uses her body as a medium and a stage for exploration, unravelling the ambiguity of gender and lust as well as the complex social dimensions. All her three recent works, Death of the Pole Dancer, Macho Dancer and Host which is showcased in Macao this time, utilise dance moves and specific dance genre to inspect the Filipino “affective labour” in the entertainment industry. These works investigate how does the body, the most intimate part and the frontline of self, respond to the gaze and fancy of the market and consumers in a globalised economic and cultural context.
In regards to Host, however, there are more complicated aspects to look at: namely the cultural body and the relations between the object and subject of gaze. Although pole dancing might make you think of the autonomy of female body under the male gaze/consumerism, this work about Japayuki (Filipino women working as dancers to entertain men in Japan) put more emphasis on the cultural codes: Under the frame of subject and object where economic power is unequal, how does the female body transform to fit in a specific cultural code and the possibility of an autonomous variation. Started in the 1990s, Filipino women moved to Japan working as dancers in the entertainment industry, entertaining salarymen and please them with dancing. These Filipino girls dress the traditional Japanese kimono and mimic the dance moves of Japanese divas. But question is, what about their body and lust?
On the stage of the performance, you can witness the transformation of Eisa Jocson. From the classic Japanese cultural codes to pop music and costumes, she gradually takes them off one by one and at last asks whether the affective labour has bargaining power in the uneven economic development amid the globalisation. The so-called culture is nothing but a disposable garment; therefore, is there any possibility for the hidden emotion and desire amongst the affective labour to flow freely?
Meanwhile, as audiences what are we expecting? Are we prejudiced when we see flirtatious and garish clothes and moves? The name of this work, Host, is particularly intriguing as the word not only refers to both men and women working in the entertaining clubs, but also asks, “Who is the master?”
This article is excerpted and translated from Chinese