62 Carving Out a Space Andres Bonifacio (“Revolution Redux”). The 90s was the decade of neo-ethnic for Locsin, for her immersion in ethnic dances and her creation of new modern dances out of her materials. It was a decade of re-narrating and dancing stories, mostly of the nation’s past. The decade after, Locsin had another discovery: the “urban Filipino.” The term “urbanative,” may be as controversial as “neo-ethnic” for those who insist on conflating the “ethnic” (and corollarily, the “native”), a “cultural reference” (i.e., linguistic and religious) “with the biological concepts of “‘blood and race.’” Anthropologist F. Landa Jocano, however, points out that we have yet to find a solid study showing scientific evidence that we could be classified into specific races. No extensive study has been done “‘for the purpose of establishing certain criteria for determining the racial classification of the population in the archipelago’” (Jocano in Nono 2008, 158). Ethnicity therefore, should not be thought of as exclusive to specific groups in the Philippines. Looking at Locsin’s and Ayala’s “urbanative,” we could say that the 21st century urban Filipino could be ethnic too because “ethnicity” is “...culture, tradition, language, social patterns and ancestry, rather than the discredited generalization of race with its assumption of a humanity divided into fixed, genetically determined biological types... Ethnicity and its components are relative to time and place, and like any social phenomenon are dynamic and prone to change...” (Ashccroft and Griffiths, and Tiffin 80-83, quoted in Nono 2008, 158). The urbanative collection saw the choreographies in Four Last Songs (1999), Dance and Poetry (2002), Meri Krismas (2002), Toccata (2001) Sayaw Atbp. (2001) Bayle Dabaw (2002), Sayaw LikhANG KIUKOK (2003, 2005), URBANATIVES (2003), Iba’t Ibang Sayaw (2006), Ibang Klaseng Pag-Ibig (2006), Legacy of Dance (2007), A Love Story (2007), Stereowoman (2007), and finally, Sayaw, Sabel (2010) which, though less controversial than her neo-ethnic choreographies of the 90s, nonetheless resonate the pulse of urban living.11 In Sayaw, Sabel, she is strongly inspired by painters Ang Kiukok and Benedicto Cabrera (more popularly known as “Bencab”). Locsin explains that visual artists seem to have a connection with her because she “see[s] stills... [and] make paintings move.” She vividly and amusingly describes what she does when she is inspired by paintings to choreograph: “gina pa giho ko sila” (I make them turn/move).