68 Carving Out a Space them in conceptualizing and creating more pieces but likewise provide them with additional movements for their dance vocabulary. In inviting Beltran, Locsin was interested in seeing how the more “cerebral” approach to dance by Beltran combines with the more “gut” driven movements of Davao’s choreographers. While the first workshop Locsin organized charged a minimal fee, the second and third were free. It was the former Ballet Philippines director and choreographer Denisa Reyes who conducted the first workshop and Beltran, the second. For both workshops, Locsin was able to get NCCA funding to cover the transportation and professional fees of the guest choreographers. And in both instances, her house had been the temporary home of her guest artists. Although Locsin would humorously dodge my questions pertaining to her theory /philosophy of dance, all her efforts—from her Ballet Philippines days to the time she began another phase of her career in Davao—are part of what I see is her dream for dance in the Philippines. On this matter, she laughingly says: “I have no vision… If it’s unconscious, then I cannot know it, right?” Despite this pronouncement, one cannot ignore the commitment to both the art form and community that has driven Locsin through the years. What motivates a choreographer in a postcolonial nation to keep on creating dances, mounting productions, and organizing workshops at a loss? “Lugi” is what characterizes her endeavors as she shoulders most of the cost entailed by her projects. She is, however, candid about the fact that it is easier to be principled when one is financially secure. So what drives her? On a personal level, perhaps it is her occasional feeling of being “alone” in Davao. Keeping dance in Davao alive is a way of providing her craft company, contributing to an inspirited community will feed not just her artistic needs, but those of others as well. But Locsin is first and foremost a Filipino choreographer. She is an artist whose works are defined by her national realities—cultural, historical, political, and aesthetics. Working in the region, she continues to make her presence felt not just in the center where her choreographies are staged but likewise all around the country as she takes her productions and dancers to different provinces. She says that “through choreography [neo-ethnic] I aim to create movements derived from dances in the history of my beloved country. I am a Filipino proud of my heritage and my work is my tribute to Philippine history” (Locsin forthcoming, n.p.). Her works and projects in the 21st century are likewise tributes to Philippine history, a more contemporary