We all know Snow White as the ever cheerful, smiling girl. In Disney movies and amusement parks, Snow White is the classic example of a happy girl. From Los Angeles to Hong Kong, all kinds of princess-actresses enchant the audience by waving and laughing.

Choreographer Eisa Jocson, who lives in Manila, observes this seemingly universal happiness from a particular perspective: Disneyland Hong Kong is the largest employer for Philippine dancers in that region. Because of their skin colour, though, they are only cast in meaningless shadow roles.

In Princess, Jocson, together with performer Russ Ligtas, reverses these roles. They analyse and reconstruct the prototypical body language, the behaviour, the voice of the idealized fantasy princess. Because Snow White is not being played by a white actress, the duo rewrites, as it were, the preprogrammed, dominant narrative. Suddenly, the Philippine body that usually plays only a marginal role is catapulted into a role in the female centre of attention.

AFTERTALK

After the performance we'll invite you to a conversation with Eisa Jocson and Ciska Hoet. Ciska Hoet is journalist and co-director of RoSa, expertise center on gender & feminism.