Named after the Filipino rice cake and their drag persona, Alvin brings Bibingka to the stage to question who is being entertained and at what price.
The piece examines entertainment economies, the physical and emotional labour embedded in performed service- particularly within queer nightlife drag performers and Filipino migrant care workers.
Through lip-syncs, audience interaction and contemporary dance, the work stages a tender dialogue between the artist and the alter ego navigating tensions between queerness and Catholic influence in Filipino diasporic consciousness and between Kapwa (Philippine indigenous virtue of shared self) and Western individualism.
When the heels come off—what remains?
“Bibingka” premiered in Sophiensaele’s 30th Anniversary of Tanztage Berlin, a project co-produced by Sophiensæle and Künster*innenhaus Mousonturm. With the kind support of Goethe Institut Philippinen Performance Ecologies. “Bibingka” toured with Goethe Institute Southeast Asia as part of Dealing in Distance Mini Traveling Festival for Southeast Asian artists based in Germany. The festival travelled to Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Bali and Manila.
Work In Progress Showing - Orange Project, Bacolod, The Philippines (2025) - Performance Ecologies - Goethe-Institute Philippines
Work In Progress Showing - Schwules Musem Berlin (2025) - Young Birds from Strange Mountains
BIBINGKA arises from Alvin’s lived experience as a Filipino migrant worker, queer body, and cultural facilitator navigating the complex social terrain of Germany. As a drag performer in Berlin—a city celebrated for radical freedom and queer expression—Alvin accesses moments of gender euphoria through their persona “Bibingka”: a portal to the most fully realized version of self. Yet this euphoria is met with grief, rooted in Catholic guilt, familial obligation, and the fear of being ostracized by one’s own kin.
In the Philippines, family is everything—intertwined with sacrifice, duty, and collective survival. To live outside normative gender roles often means risking that tether. BIBINGKA inhabits this liminal space: between public celebration and private hesitation, between becoming and what must be left behind. Drag becomes both shield and offering—an embodied metaphor for the contradictions of diaspora, queerness, and survival.
Filipinos are known globally for their service roles, but behind this lies colonial history and trauma. BIBINGKA reveals the pain and strength behind the cheerful migrant image and critiques this transactional performance of joy while honoring the quiet resistance it requires.
The drag performer is hyper-visible yet misunderstood—both adorned and erased.
The stage becomes a site of negotiation: between Berlin’s liberation and the internalized restraints of faith, family, and displacement. It asks: What does it mean to be celebrated and feared in the same breath? What remains when joy becomes labour, and glamour a survival strategy?
Running Time: 60 minutes
Genre: Contemporary Dance & Drag Performance
Creation Residency in Linangan Residency (2025)
