An art is a part of nation's soul

To the rest of the country, Agnes Locsin is a National Artist for Dance whose rich body of work serves as a seminal example of the neo-ethnic genre.(...) For Locsin, the arts and humanities hold the power to nurture the Filipino soul. From her time spent finishing her MA in Dance at The Ohio State University to her time choreographing in Amsterdam, Locsin came to an understanding of the richness and uniqueness of Filipino movement—gaining a greater appreciation of home while immersed in foreign environments where Western theories and forms dictate what constitutes good taste and sensibility. And perhaps it is this transformative power of discovering her own identity, her raison d’être, and her Filipino-ness through dance that makes the current state of Philippine arts pain her so deeply (...) By how the government treats artists, it just shows that they don’t view the arts or dance as part of a nation’s soul. It’s so disgusting what CHED [Commission of Higher Education] is doing in erasing the humanities courses at the college level. It’s disgusting what’s going on with our government.