58 Carving Out a Space of folk dances did not escape critical assessment. In effect, the company “invented traditions” and in the process of forwarding a national identity, presented the “ ‘folk’ by edit[ing] ritual into palatable entertainment forms built for export” (Gonzalves 2010, 73). Reynaldo Alejandro, a scholar on Philippine dance based in the United States describes the Bayanihan’s choreographies as “stylistically staged revue dancing” which ultimately renders a picture of the Filipino people as “eternally happy, carefree, childishly irresponsible, ignoring all sense of the hundred of years of social struggle” (Gonzalves 2010, 83). Even Reyes-Aquino, three decades after she mounted her productions, expressed dismay at those who “stylized the national repertoire behind her ability to recognize it” (Gonzalves 2010, 48). The discussion on the vexatious issue of staged “folk dance” illustrates the inevitable problematic involvement of dance with the nation, predictably when the former is made to carry the weight of representing the latter. The soldering of dance and the nation will always be a temptuous relationship particularly when choreographies are declared part of a nationalist agenda. The critical assessments that surrounded the productions of the Bayanihan resonate in critiques of choreographies informed by movements derived from the ethnolinguistic groups in the Philippines. The “folk,” the “ethnic,” and the “tribal” are tightly guarded terms protected from those who are not folk, ethnic, or tribal; they are shielded from choreographers like Locsin. Hence, the reaction towards some of her choreographies, particularly the Igorot. But the Igorot featuring classical pointework of the ballet tradition had a long history of gestation. The idea began when she was exposed by her sister, Bing, to the Bayanihan dance troupe. Locsin had wanted to join the group primarily because she idolized her sister who was her teacher in folkdance, jazz, tap, and aerobics. In high school, Locsin danced the Igorot choreographed by her sister for a folk dance competition and even when she was already in college, her fascination for the dance became stronger when she watched an Igorot piece win in a folk dance competition. Remembering the choreography’s use of unison, she then decided to create her own version for her dance group and entered the piece in another competition (Locsin, e-mail to author, July 22, 2011). If Locsin saw the choreographic possibilities (i.e., its precision and technical demands) of an Igorot piece, her classmates and teacher in a compositional studies class at the Ohio State University were stunned and speechless upon watching her use its dance vocabulary. Realizing that it