In the performance SIYA, binary understandings of gender stereotypes are challenged. Mysterious yet familiar figures and movements emerge through constant change and distortion. SIYA is a bodily exploration of complexity, where transformation becomes a strategy to resist simplification, categorization, and heteronormative ideals.

The Filipino language is gender-neutral, and the word “siya” is used for all living beings. In SIYA, a dance collective from the Filipino diaspora dives into ideas from pre-colonial Filipino history, focusing on challenging binary and heteronormative thinking by creating a space where performers claim ownership of their complex identities.

Audiences encounter bodies in continuous transformation. In one moment, they resemble a harmless bird; in the next, a ravenous ghost with an intense gaze fixed on the viewer. Both friendly and hostile, playful and serious, charming and repulsive—all at once. Individual expressions weave in and out of shifting constellations, forming a multidimensional space.

The landscape slowly morphs into unexpected and uncertain terrains, generating a hypnotic disorientation where dogmas are questioned and new truths emerge. Acts of longing and denial, ambiguous gestures of resistance and surrender, and a humming hope. SIYA seeks to uncover echoes from the past—the good, the evil—and everything in between.