RESEARCH

Academic

At Concordia, I completed the research project, Healing in the margins: art therapy and racial minority clients. This conceptual paper introduced a critical, theoretical framework to evaluate the therapeutic experiences of BIPOC clients utilizing art therapy as a healing modality which was was funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC- GSM) and was honoured as a national finalist in the SSHRC Storytellers Competition. 

In the fall of 2025, I will begin my doctoral studies through an individualized program in Fine Arts at Concordia University in the departments of Creative Arts Therapies, Theatre, and Education. My research goals focus on understanding how neo-burlesque can serve as a healing modality for QTBIPOC in Canada.

Artistic

My artistic research has been funded by the Canada Council for the Arts and has been presented across Canada. 

Walang Hiya, a long-form 20 minute burlesque performance that focuses on Filipina sexuality and integrates traditional Filipino costuming, dance, and theatrics, commissioned by CanAsian Dance and presented by Tangente Dance and Festival Accès Asie. 

The Philippines experienced 300 years of Spanish colonial rule, resulting in a restrictive, conservative culture that seeks to control female sexuality. In Walang Hiya, I contrast these constraints and those associated with the reality of living in a racialized and fetishized body in diaspora with the sex-positivity of burlesque. The piece was also presented in Toronto as part of the CanAsian Dance Kickstart and across Newfoundland presented by Neighbourhood Dance Works as a part of Festival of New Dance.

Most spectacularly, Walang Hiya incorporates the death-defying Filipino folk dance of Tinikling (bamboo pole dancing) into the eroticism of intuitive sensual dance, leaving the audience at the edge of their seats throughout. 

In spring of 2026, Walang Hiya will be presented in an extended 40 minute long format at Tangente in Montreal.