Marie Lloyd Paspe

STONE BELLY is a dance-theater performance centering the resilient mythology of babaylans and teachings of indigenous land-based healers from the Philippines. Babaylans are pre-colonial matriarchal shamanic healers whose traditions still persist today, called by different names. Based on Visayan legend, Spanish colonizers cut our babaylans’ bodies and fed them to the crocodiles. In the crocodile belly, the babaylan spirit would survive.

STONE BELLY re-imagines this myth, telling the story of GIRL – three fragmented women, neither mother, grandmother, or daughter – stuck inside the crocodile belly. They cross-contaminate timelines through debris of fascia, memories, and environments, engulfing the gaps that separate GIRL from their fragments. The work incorporates explosive choreography, expansive original live music, poetic narrative, and intergenerational community gatherings within an installation of handwoven netting and discarded packaging paper. 

Caretakers of Land/Land Acknowledgement: lands of the Canarsie and Munsee Lenape on Turtle Island

Estimated Artist Fee:

● 25,500 for a single performance

● $35,500 for a weekly residency

○ Please note the above artist fees include travel, per diem, accommodations, and local transportation for 8 people, and freight costs.