Magic Maids

The ‘Witch’ and the ‘Maid’ are both legendary female figures – despised and feared at the same time – these are poles of one and the same misogynist matrix. Even today, accusations of witchcraft can surface in the context of work migrants being stigmatized. In their dance performance Magic Maids, Eisa Jocson and Venuri Perera work together for the first time and create an evening of dance, magic, and struggle, and make space for unheard stories from maids in the Philippines, in Sri Lanka, and Indonesia. Taking the European witch-hunts as a starting point, they clean house with misogynist power structures and expose the invisibility of care work with this purity ritual. In doing so, the broom is raised from the silent witness of oppression to the symbol of feminist resistance.

Eisa Jocson is a contemporary choreographer, dancer and visual artist based in La Union. Her work exposes the politics of the body in the service and entertainment industry from the unique socio-economic perspective of the Philippines, exploring how and under what conditions bodies move. In all her works, ranging from pole dancing and macho dancing to hostess work and Disney princess, capital is the driving force behind the movement that pushes the body into spatial geographies. In 2019, she won the Hugo Boss Asia Art Award and received in 2023 the Tabori Award International in Germany.

Venuri Perera is a choreographer, performance artist, curator and educator from Colombo, Sri Lanka, based in Amsterdam. In her solo and collaborative works, she deals with violent nationalism, patriarchy, border rituals, colonial heritage, and class. She explores the power dynamics of gaze and opacity through performative experiments in theaters, galleries and public spaces. Venuri Perera has been conceiving and curating programs for the Colombo Dance Platform since 2016, with the support of the Goethe-Institut Colombo.