An Interview with Erik Alvaro - Punking/Posing/Whacking

Erik Alvaro is a Filipino-Canadian dance artist, choreographer, and educator based in Ottawa. His practice is rooted in the dance cultures of Punking/Whacking, Hip Hop, House, Locking, partner work, and Filipino Folk dance. Trained with Culture Shock and The Flava Factory, he has performed and trained internationally in cities including Los Angeles, Washington D.C., Toronto, Montréal, and Peru.

As an artist and historian, Erik is devoted to honoring the legacy of dance architects, weaving their influences with his own lived experiences to build a collaborative artistic future. Through his creative practice, advocacy, and community engagement, he strives to ignite safe artistic dialogue within the Ottawa community and beyond.

In our interview, we asked Erik about his relationship to the many expressions of dance and cultural, spiritual, and personal ties that create the makeup of his artistic practice.

What does community and cultural expression mean to you, particularly within this multicultural event?

I am honoured to be a part of this multicultural event. Giving us artists space to voice our heart and presence with others in Ottawa is a beautiful event to witness and be in.

What drew you to Punking/Posing/Whacking, and how has it shaped your choreographic voice?

I don’t know that this comes from any one culture, but the immigrant journey to finding home and belonging is really what my work embodies.

Recently, I’ve been working with the binakael weaving pattern in my Filipino culture to explore these ideas and extend the cultural dialogue of this pattern. The intensely graphic/geometric symmetry of this pattern exists in other names in other cultures. Still, in the Filipino tradition, it is meant to confuse evil spirits and protect the wearer. My attempts at perfecting the pattern are like siren calls to my ancestors to cross waters and guide me.

What emotion or cultural themes do you aim to explore through your choreography?

I aim to explore themes of Identity, Social Life, and Family through my choreography. I highlight my current life path. Having time now fully to be an artist, I have time to dig within my Filipino roots fully rather than occasionally. Navigating my knowledge and expressions of Filipino Culture into my daily life now and how it was when I was younger. Acknowledging this current entry point of life, while acknowledging the other entry point of life, how street dance in general led me to the life I live now.

Your work has been described as “storytelling through gesture”. Can you share a moment carried an entire narrative for you.

The vocabulary I pull from in my dances, I am keen on understanding its meaning to use in the right context. When I fuse a dance vocabulary together, I especially need to know that both individual dances have meaning. When I dance now, especially using punk/pose/whacking, I add my Filipino roots using Filipino folk dance that I know together. For example, from Filipino folk dance, I take a step called the Sway Balance, take the body frame, and use the space from that. Then take the musical cadence of punk/pose/whacking. Together, that one fuses dance vocab and says I’m a Filipino street and folk dancer.

How has your teaching practice shaped your own growth as a performer?

Teaching reminds me of my love for music and the first time I fell in love with a dance form. The students really brought about the spark that led me to the music and dance from its smallest to largest detail that made it pop for me. When I start from that space of the initial natural feelings I always develop an authentic and enjoyable expression for an audience to witness.

What’s a memory from your early dance life that still fuels your creativity today?

My first ever competition in a competition battle for whacking was in Montreal, 2015. I had already been doing the dance for about 5-6 years. This was the first time stepping out in that competitive space for that dance. At the period of time, battles like that were few and far between. This particular competition was a yearly event and the biggest in North America at that time. That year, one of the main pioneers of that dance was judging. 

The stakes could not have been higher. I was ready to rep my city. I was the youngest one there at 18 out of 80+ people from around the globe competing. I made it to the Top 16 big feat for any dancer, especially in that calibre of global competition. The first time I felt I genuinely moved an entire new audience, including the judge, with a standing ovation for my initial rounds. A pivotal point since I was on the verge of moving on from the dance, but to inspire the people that inspired me to dance this I continued to hone my craft in this dance to this day.

How do you navigate honing a dance's origins and making it your own?

You acknowledge its origins and its building blocks by pulling from it first. When you start with the people who made it and/or the frame of mind that built the dance, you honour its beginnings. There are stories woven in by one or many individual expressions that make the specific dance happen. 

Carrying that first, you will dance the dance as close to its upbringing as you can. Once you have that, then you can find common entry points or narrative in your life and movement that can relay the message of the dance form you are choosing to do.

Meet Erik Alvaro at the ART+ Fall 2025 Showcase on 4th October at the Arts Court Atelier, 2 Daly Avenue, Ottawa.