Choreographer and dancer Aaron Kaiser Garcia was trained in various forms of Filipino folk dance at the famous Philippine High School of the Arts. In his extraordinary lecture performance, Aaron Kaiser Garcia now subjects these dances to a revision - with precision, intelligence and with subtle humour. How do inventions become traditions? What happens when movements no longer belong to us? When our gestures are choreographed to represent someone else’s interpretation and perception of us? Garcia exposes the colonial layers, the political and economic power structures and processes of institutionalisation that are inscribed in dance practices and tell of oppression, marginalisation, dispossession and erasure. In doing so, the choreographer reverses existing rules. He attempts to remove the layers of commercial consumption that have moulded and envelop the dancing body, with the aim of reclaiming this stolen “cultural asset”.
Infos
- Duration: 50 min.
- Language: English
- 20.09., Screen Printing Station for audience
- September 21, artist talk afterwards
- World premiere
- Mousonturm co-production
Accessibility
Accessibility of Location
Sponsors and Supporters
Choreography & Performance: Aaron Kaiser Garcia
Outside Eye: Wen Hui
Sound Design: Jett Ilagan a.k.a Escuri, Philipp Kehder, Frank Erhardt
Video Artist: Joyce Garcia, Brandon Louis Relucio
Text: Kirby Vicente
Dramaturgical Support: Jared Jonathan Luna & Alexandra Hennig
A co-production as part of “Sincerely Yours, the Philippines,” a project by Künstler*innenhaus Mousonturm in cooperation with the Goethe-Institut Philippines. Funded by the German Federal Cultural Foundation through the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media. Supported by the Kulturfonds Frankfurt RheinMain, the Goethe-Institut, and “Philippines – Guest of Honor at the Frankfurt Book Fair 2025.” With support from the Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum and the residency program “Frankfurt Moves!,” an initiative of the KfW Foundation in cooperation with Frankfurt LAB.
Biography
Aaron Kaiser Garcia, based in Tacloban, is a performance artist, dancer, and choreographer. He graduated from the Philippine High School of the Arts with a specialization in folk dance and from the Intercultural Theatre Institute in Singapore. In addition to various Philippine dance forms, he has trained in contemporary dance as well as in Odissi, Chhau, and Kutiyattam. He has also engaged intensively with Peking Opera, Wayang Wong, and Noh theatre.
In his work, Aaron Kaiser Garcia explores the body’s potential to process the manifold layers of the Filipino socio-political psyche. For him, dance and choreography are tools not only to expose political revisionism, but to actively resist it. Though classically trained in folk dance, he now critically interrogates the entanglement of this tradition with state-orchestrated systems of violence and cultural erasure. In response, he proposes an alternative vision of folklore—as a living, collaboratively created practice rooted in reciprocity and transformation.
20.09. Screen Printing Station
„Sincerely Yours, the Philippines“ Siebdruck-Station
Festival-Look to go: Am 18.09. und 20.09. gibt’s im Mousonturm-Foyer eine kleine Siebdruck-Werkstatt. Einfach Shirt, Hoodie, Jutebeutel oder was auch immer aus Stoff mitbringen – und das Festival-Motiv (Design: Art Director Stefan Neubauer) direkt aufdrucken lassen.
Wann: Do 18.09. & Sa 20.09., jeweils von 18-22 Uhr
Wo: Mousonturm Foyer 1. STock
Wichtig: Bedruckt werden können alle glatten Textilien (am besten Baumwolle, ohne Nähte).
Siebdruck-Artists: Andreas Diefenbach und Veronika Weingärtner