Three years after conducting work on the Philippine gay pageantry as a student in Brussels, Josh Serafin came home to the Philippines to augment his knowledge on pageant culture in cooperation with BAP.

He went to Bacolod as well to interview the organizer of Lin-ay sang Negros to find out more information about the organization, its ways in choosing potential candidates in a provincial scale, and the training the girls receive. Josh also talked to the latest winner of Lin-ay sang to understand from firsthand experience what it means to be part of the spectacle. He stopped by Manila to interview Tor Torres who used to compete in pageants before the widespread use of the internet and plastic surgery to discuss the differences of pageants then and now. Josh also talked a pageant girl personality development trainer, JV Can, to know more about the process behind pageants. In Bataan, Josh collaborated with Eljay Ricafranca Villafuerte and Siege Sytangco to start his pageant training. Eljay, known as Miss Tornado Walk, helped Josh inject creativity and drama in pageantry by combining elements from other performing arts. Siege Sytangco coached Josh in how to become a “queen” by teaching Josh how to propery stand, walk, and pose.

Eskwela Workshop

On September 7, 2019, Josh discussed current contemporary dance practices in Europe and Asia in an Eskwela workshop involving a diverse group of dancers and actors. They were taught how to move their bodies in order to design architectural composition that proposes Ideal and Dystopian architecture and to create an alter-ego that will reveal their “ideal identity.”

Miss