Pison 71 Choreography: A Malaysian Perspective (2004) where he includes the styles of Graham, Cunningham, Hawkins, and Limon-- I consider her works in my study of contemporary choreographers. 8 Here we assume that the woman was referring to their Bontoc dance and not really to an “Igorot dance” because the people in the North identify themselves according to their ethnolinguistc groupings. 9 Although references identify only six groups, Locsin mentions that the Kankanaey is not included in the list and feels that some people— including one of her dancers— from the higher regions of Benguet are aware of such exclusion. 10 In observing contemporary North American dances, he is annoyed at seeing the “mix match of cultures as if they were nothing more than ingredients of a nouvelle cuisine. Almost everyday, press releases arrive in the mail that breathlessly announce a fashionable (and no doubt fundable) fusion of culture differences: hybrids of breakdancing and butoh, ballet and Bharatanatyam”( 1993, 27) . 11 The pulse of the urban Filipino resonates in the sentimental, and even maudlin song of Eddie Peregrinna and the hilarious but witty song of Yoyoy Villame. 12 Biag Gaongen, Locsin’s dancer and “sounding board in the past ten years,” remembers seeing her tired of doing neo-ethinc for over a decade (Locsin, e-mail to author, July 24, 2011). Another dancer, Camille Joson, characterizes the style that came after the death of Locsin’s father as one that was seemingly “broken and helpless.” Joson nonetheless describes the urbanative Four Last Songs as a rebirth of Locsin as a choreographer (e-mail to Locsin, July 25). Christine Maranan, also a dancer who experienced the shift in Locsin’s choreographies, initially resisted the “movement exploration” because it was unfamiliar to her body. This notwithstanding, she eventually found something “liberating” in the new form which for her was “not totally far from neo-ethnic movement [because] there was still groundedness” (e-mail to Locsin, July 29, 2011). Judelle de Guzman Sicam shares Maranan’s opinion on how the urbanative pieces were “still grounded” and “earthy,” requiring the solidity of both “supporting leg and torso” (e-mail to author, July 25, 2011). 13 The WiFi Body Independent Contemporary Dance Festival is a gathering of dancers all over the country. Launched in 2006, the festival was conceived to follow the trajectory of the Contemporary Dance Map series which in 2005, had performances in alternative spaces all over the Philippines. Since 2006, the festival has expanded to embrace two hundred thirty-two (232) dance artists in twenty (20) dance organizations, with an average of fifty (50) choreographers, and with fifty-two (52) contemporary dance premieres a year. It is definitely the biggest dance event in the country. 14 Hinilawod (i.e., “‘Tales from the mouth of the Halawod River”’), discovered in 1955 by anthropologist F. Landa Jocano, is considered the oldest and longest epic of the Western Visayas. It is a treasure of the Sulod people in the mountains of central Panay who use the epic as source of information about the religion and rituals of the ancient Sulod culture. This chanted and performed epic which has 28,340 verses, tells the story of the adventures of three Sulodnon demigod