Díaz Rodríguez / María Clara for the 21st Century 21 Kritika Kultura 27 (2016): –044 © Ateneo de Manila University <http://kritikakultura.ateneo.net> José Miguel Díaz Rodríguez School of Humanities Massey University of New Zealand – Aotearoa J.Diaz-Rodriguez@massey.ac.nz Abstract As an example of a postcolonial critique to certain hegemonic Spanish discourses in the Philippines, this essay examines the practice-as-research dance piece Love, Death, and Mompou (2006), which was a revision of the traditional María Clara dance suite. It argues that the show uses the expressiveness of the body as a trigger to subvert, re-represent and perform a range of “colonial” discourses that were reinforced by Spanish cultural producers, through funding policies, such as the Spanish Program for Cultural Cooperation. In this context, this essay argues that these policies echo a colonial past by inluencing the local arts scene, and by establishing what can be perceived as a “neo-colonial” relationship between Spanish oicial institutions and those local artists involved in the arts events. Keywords arts funding, dance, María Clara performance, Philippine-Spanish relationships, postcolonial studies About the Authors José Miguel Díaz Rodríguez is a Lecturer at Massey University of New Zealand – Aotearoa. He holds a PhD in Spanish Cultural Studies, for which he received an Arts and Humanities Research Council Award at the University of Leeds (UK). His research interests include Spanish and Filipino cultural studies, cultural representation, postcolonialism, intercultural exchanges, and the promotion of culture in transnational contexts. MARÍA CLARA FOR THE 21 st CENTURY Filipino Responses to “Neo-Colonial” Encounters