Who is Lucrecia Reyes - Urtula in the Philippines?

Lucrecia Reyes-Urtula is a choreographer, dance educator and researcher. She is the founding dance director of Bayanihan Philippine National Folk Dance Company, choreographing artistic dances based on her extensive research on ethnic dances. She was named as National Artist for Dance in 1988.She applied her findings to project a new example of an ethnic dance culture that goes beyond simple preservation and into creative growth. Over a period of thirty years, she has choreographed suites of mountain dances, Spanish-influenced dances, Muslim pageants and festivals, regional variations and dances of the countryside for the Bayanihan Philippine Dance Company of which she is the dance director. These dances have all earned critical acclaim and rave reviews from audiences in their world tours in Americas, Europe, Asia, Australia and Africa.

Among the widely acclaimed dances she has staged are the following: ''Singkil, a Bayanihan signature number based on a Maranao epic poem; ''Vinta, a dance honoring Filipino sailing prowess; Tagabili, a tale of tribal conflict; ''Pagdiwata, a four-day harvest festival condensed into a six-minute breath-taking spectacle; ''Salidsid, a mountain wedding dance ; ''Idaw, Banga'' and ''Aires de Verbena.''''''''''Francisca Reyes Aquino is acknowledged as the Folk Dance Pioneer. This Bulakeña began her research on folk dances in the 1920's making trips to remote barrios in Central and Northern Luzon. Her research on the unrecorded forms of local celebration, ritual and sport resulted into a 1926 thesis titled ''"Philippine Folk Dances ''and Games," and arranged specifically for use by teachers and playground instructors in public and private schools. In the 1940's, she served as supervisor of physical education at the Bureau of Education that distributed her work and adapted the teaching of folk dancing as a medium of making young Filipinos aware of their cultural heritage. In 1954, she received the Republic Award of Merit given by the late Pres. Ramon Magsaysay for "outstanding contribution toward the advancement of Filipino culture", one among the many awards and recognition given to her.''''

Her books include the following: Philippine National Dances (1946); Gymnastics for Girls (1947); Fundamental Dance Steps and Music (1948); Foreign Folk Dances (1949); Dances for all Occasion (1950); Playground Demonstration (1951); and Philippine Folk Dances, Volumes I to VI.

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