The Center at West Park Presents
Sungod
Presented as a part of the CWP Evolution Festival
Sunday, June 28, 2026 @ 7:00PM
The Sanctuary at St. Paul & St. Andrew
263 W 86th St., New York, NY 10024
Sungod (Destiny) is a multi-sensory live production blending film, dance, and music, where Joyce Lao weaves Igorot tradition with butoh, improv, kali, and global dance forms to explore identity, resilience, and the layered cultural influences of her Filipino heritage.
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Sungod (Destiny) is a multi-sensory live production - a hybrid of film, dance, and music piece that follows Joyce's journey as she reconnects with her indigenous roots and discovers her inner strength. In this work, Joyce would attempt to combine her Igorot dance culture with her improv, butoh, her kali martial arts stick skills, modern dance and her latin dance training to tell the story. This is her attempt to create a piece that would marry all the cultural influences in her upbringing through the colonizations and inter-cultural exchange in the Philippines - Igorot, Filipino, Chinese, Japanese, American and Latin/Spanish.
About the Lead Artist
Joyce Lao is an Indigenous Filipino-American artist from the Igorot (Ibaloi/Bago) people of the Cordillera region. Based in New York City, she is an actress, performer, producer, director, and arts educator. Trained in psychology, special education, music, arts administration, and dance, she has studied at Juilliard, Stella Adler, and HB Studios. Her award-winning work spans film, theater, and international festivals including Edinburgh Fringe. She founded The Ally Artists Group and The Young Artist, co-created immersive theater projects, and champions Indigenous and POC artists while advancing arts education, social justice, and cultural preservation globally and collaboratively.