Joshua Serafin is a dancer, performer, and maker originally from the Philippines. He is a graduate of Philippine High School for the Arts where he majored in Theatre Arts. He also studied in Hong Kong Academy for Performing arts major in Contemporary dance. Currently he is about to finish the training cycle in P.A.R.T.S. Belgium. 

He has performed in several platforms and collaborated both in asia and europe with different artist ranging from performance to visual arts such as: Arco Renz, Eisa Jocson, Manuel Pelmus, Bruno Isacovic, Ming Wong,  Adrian Wong, Choy Ka Fai, Leeroy New, and more. 

His work currently deals with questions about identity, states of being, ways of inhabiting the body, and the inherent duality that manifest in his physical form and what it represents through and alter identity he has created called “Void.”

MISS by Joshua Serafin

Bellas Artes Projects (BAP) proudly presents MISS, a work-in-progress by dancer and performer Josh Serafin (Philippines/Belgium), which unpacks codes of representation and performativity found in the established world of transgender beauty pageantry in the Philippines, and looks closer into the rigor and choreography in subculture and rural pageantry; where queerness explodes fixed categorization of femininity and fantasy. 

Serafin traveled to Cebu City and Bacolod City to research the history and meet with organizers of Queen Philippines 2019--the grandest beauty pageant for transgender women in the country--and Linay Sang Negros, respectively. Interviews and movement training with past winners and contestants informs and serves as inspiration for Miss, a one-hour long performance that pushes the boundaries of femininity, sex and gender. 

Special thanks to Eljay Ricafranca Villafuerte a.k.a. Ms. Tornado Walk, Siege Sytancgco, and Cary Santiago. 

Josh Serafin’s BAP residency is supported by Mercedes Zobel.