Stages in life: Narrative practices and identities of filipina go-go dancers

Social interaction involves performances across varied ‘stages’ of space and time, where subject-authors use narrative conventions to communicate their beliefs, identities, and desires in order to influence the opinions and behaviour of others. As participants in these performances, people consider the particular context in which these utterances occur since narratives vary according to changes in audience composition and the discursive structures that frame social encounters. In this article I discuss how Filipina go-go dancers develop creative storylines that describe their biographical progression as young women in this modern, cosmopolitan setting. Despite the apparent position of ‘powerlessness,’ these actors exhibit considerable agency through the intentional re-presentation of certain scripts (such as the ‘dutiful daughter’ or ‘girlfriend’), choosing which stories to enact and using the transitional context of the bar to develop new biographical narratives.