NO FLASH, no click-clicking of the camera during silent moments, no standing. Now you are official, ballet artist par excellence Agnes Locsin said as soon as I settled down on my seat and brought out my camera on the last night of the "Sayaw, Sabel" show in Davao City last August 1.

Now that is a big challenge if you're lugging around a DSLR camera you are still getting to know. It turned out that all you need to know is how to focus and when to click, Agnes Locsin's "Sayaw, Sabel" will do the rest -- the artistry, the grace will just jump out at you, it would take a blind person not to be able to see them.

"Sayaw, Sabel: Pinagalaw ni Agnes Locsin ang likha ni BenCab" is a collection of 11 dances depicting Filipino life based on the "dislocation, despair, and isolation" of national artist Ben Cabrera's iconic figure "Sabel" in his first solo exhibit in 1966 in Gallery Indigo.

Three weeks before that, Sun.Star interviewed Locsin and also got a glimpse of ballet dancer Gaye Galiluyo as she practiced in the Locsin Dance Studio along Quirino Avenue. The peek into what "Sayaw, Sabel" is, however, was just that a very small peek. The surreal feeling imparted by Galiluyo's contortions as she danced to Yoyoy Villame's "Buchikik" was nothing compared to the overpowering emotions that all 11 dances imparted.

"Kayod," "Batak," "Balo," "Abandonada," "Sugatan," "Bagong Bayani," "Sino Ka?" "Ako Una," "Ano Ako?" "Nasaan Ako?" and "Dalawahan" painted in powerful movements the anguish of broken souls.

"In this production, Sabel is a reinvention of Jose Rizal's Sisa, whose sad and relentless plight has come to represent an accessible image of the country's continuous and seemingly endless struggle to survive," the show's program reads.

Directed by Locsin and choreographed by Dwight Rodrigazo, Sonny Locsin, Georgette Sanchez, Gaye Galiluyo, and Agnes Locsin, herself, the show ran for three nights from Julky 30 to August 1 at the Locsin Dance Studio.

The audience was spread around the stage, giving an intimate feel to the whole production as the dancers appeared from all over in quiet, sometimes eerie movements.

"Sayaw, Sabel" artists include Manila-based dancers Christine Crame, Annette Cruz Mariano, Tudett de Guzman-Sicam, Camille Ordinario-Joson, and Perry Sevidal, Annie Divinagracia Sartorio of Iloilo, Dwight Rodrigazo of Bacolod, US-based Grethel Damaso-Raypon, Germany-based Galiluyo, Sonny Locsin, and Georgette Sanchez, and theater artists Nonie Buencamino, Shamaine Centenera Buencamino, Melvin Lee, and Maribel Legarda.

"Sayaw, Sabel" is Locsin's latest work that took more than two years to create. Among her notable productions for Davao are Dance and Poetry (2000), Sayaw Atbp. (2001), Bayle Dabaw (2002), Sayaw Likhang Kiukok (2003 and 2005), and Iba't Ibang Sayaw (2006).

Her most important works, however, are Encantada, Babalyan, Taong Talangka, Bagobo, Igorot, Moriones, Elias, Hinilawod, and La Revolucion Filipina.

After the Davao show, the group presented at Greenbelt Garden in Makati City Saturday and then will be bringing the show to Baguio City in October.

Before these, it has already been staged at the Peta Theater in Quezon City on June 26 and Ayala Museum in Makati, University of the Philippines in Los Banos and the Philippine High School for the Arts, both in Los Baños, Laguna, Silay City, Bacolod City, and Iloilo City all throughout July.

Once again, Davao's very own Agnes Locsin has shown the genius that she has honed in her mother Carmen D. Locsin's dance studio right along Quirino Avenue when it was still known as Tomas Claudio. Here's to hoping that this genius will not be lost through lack of appreciation for the treasures that we have right among us.