Eisa Jocson

Biography

A contemporary choreographer, dancer and visual artist with a background in ballet, Eisa Jocson investigates the labour and representation of the dancing body in the service industry and exposes identity and gender formation, seduction politics and Filipino social mobility.

Jocson’s solo works Host (2015), Macho Dancer (2013) and Death of the Pole Dancer (2011) have been featured in major international festivals, including the Asia Triennial of Performing Arts, Melbourne (2017); Zürcher Theater Spektakel, Zurich (2012, 2013, 2015, 2017); Noorderzon Performing Arts Festival, Groningen, the Netherlands (2013, 2015); Tanz im August, Berlin (2013, 2015); Theatre der Welt, Mannheim, Germany (2014) and ImPulsTanz—Vienna International Dance Festival (2013). These solo works have also been presented as a trilogy at the Liveworks Festival of Experimental Arts, Sydney (2016) and CounterPulse, in association with SFMOMA, San Francisco (2016). She had her first solo exhibition, Philippine Macho Academy, in the Vargas Museum, University of the Philippines (2014).

Jocson’s work Macho Dancer won the Zürcher Kantonalbank Acknowledgement Prize (2013), and her performance piece Princess has been selected as one of the outstanding contemporary productions for the 2018 edition of Tanzplattform, Essen, Germany.

She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Visual Communication from the University of the Philippines Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines (2008). She was born in 1986 in Manila, where she continues to live and work.

SAF participation:
Sharjah Biennial 14