The retrospective exhibition brings the pioneering choreographer’s neo-ethnic vision to Panay, exploring the intersections of indigenous tradition, colonial history, and contemporary Filipino identity.
The Iloilo Museum of Contemporary Art (ILOMOCA) presents Dance Is My Life, a retrospective exhibition tracing the five-decade artistic journey of Agnes Locsin, 2022 National Artist for Dance. Opening on October 17, 2026, and running through January 2027, the exhibition arrives in Iloilo as the final stop of its national tour before returning to its home city of Davao. Its presentation in Panay introduces Locsin’s influential body of work to a new regional audience, highlighting the connections between her choreographic vision and the cultural histories that inform contemporary dance.
Conceived as a research and curatorial project by Igy and Pam Castrillo, in collaboration with Biag Gaongen, Associate Artistic Director of Locsin Dance Workshop, Dance Is My Life examines the human body as a site of cultural memory and transformation. Through Locsin’s choreographic practice, the exhibition explores how indigenous traditions, colonial histories, and evolving ideas of modernity intersect in contemporary dance.
At the center of this inquiry is Locsin’s development of neo-ethnic choreography, an approach that draws from indigenous Filipino traditions, rituals, and narratives and reinterprets them through contemporary movement. Her work examines what happens when inherited cultural forms encounter modernity: what is preserved, what is transformed, and what risks being lost. The body becomes both a bearer of cultural memory and a medium through which tradition can be continually reimagined.
These questions take on added significance in Iloilo and across Panay, where regional histories and cultural traditions offer audiences points of connection to the exhibition. Works such as Babalyan, Hinilawod, and Labaw Donggon engage with spiritual traditions and epic narratives from the Philippines, bringing ancestral knowledge into conversation with contemporary artistic expression.
Presented at ILOMOCA, they invite viewers to consider how stories and traditions endure across generations and find new expression through dance. The exhibition also reinforces Iloilo Business Park’s growing role as Iloilo City’s center of arts and culture, bringing Filipino artistic practices closer to local audiences.
More than a retrospective of an extraordinary artistic career, Dance Is My Life presents dance as a living archive of cultural experience, where traditions continue to evolve and the past remains present in the moving body.
Discover Dance Is My Life at ILOMOCA from October 17, 2026, through January 2027. For more information about the exhibition and the museum’s latest happenings, contact ILOMOCA at 0968 291 8676, email ilomoca.ph@gmail.com, or visit www.megaworld-
