Lucrecia Reyes Urtula was the founding director of the Bayanihan Philippine National Folk Dance Company and was named National Artist of the Philippines for dance in 1988. 

She worked to translate folk dancing into the realm of theater. She adapted indigenous dance traditions to the demands of the modern stage, and performances of her works received international attention. 

Category Artist :Choreographer, theater director, teacher, author, researcher on ethnic dance. - DANCING

Born in Iloilo, Reyes was the daughter of Antonia Faustino, a nurse, and Col. Leon S. Reyes of the Philippine Constabulary (PC), who later served as a brigadier general and a military governor. She grew up amidst music and dance. Her mother's family included many musicians and her musician father could play many instruments. He was a regular participant at fiestas and special occasions in his hometown of Calamba.

Reyes' father was an ardent lover of folk and ethnic art. Due to the demands of his military career, the family moved frequently and was consecutively assigned to Iloilo, Jolo, Kalibo, Capiz, Surigao, Dumaguete, Bacolod, Negros Oriental, Cotabato, Cagayan de Oro, Misamis Oriental, Lanao and Mountain Province. Reyes learned to appreciate the distinct cultures of the various ethnic groups and was an active participant in the celebrations of festivals and rituals. Against this backdrop, Reyes developed an enduring interest in the arts, music and dance.

While in Baguio, Reyes enrolled in a ballet class run by a Russian immigrant. She later obtained a degree in Education, specializing in Physical Education. She was asked by Francisca Reyes-Aquino, a pioneer in the revival of folk dance, to assist in documenting folk dances. 

She was married to Dalmacio Urtula and had three children with him.

She studied at the Philippine Women’s University in 1950 and earned her Bachelor of Science degree physical education. Then she followed courses ballet and modern dance at the University of California and San Francisco State College.

She was from the foundation of the Bayanihan Philippine National Folk Dance Company in the late fifties over 30 years dance director at the company. In the 60s she traveled across the country to study. Throughout the dance of cultural minorities She used the knowledge gained to develop choreographies for Bayanihan. Some of her most acclaimed dances are the Singkil, the vinta, a dance in honor of the Philippine sailing arts; tagabili, a story about conflicts between tribes and pagdiwata salidsid, a dance from the Philippine mountains. The group toured several times around the world with typical Filipino folk dance performances and thereby got many glowing reviews.

She enrolled at San Francisco University (graduate studies in dance drama), Martha Graham School of Modern Dance at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and Hanyagi School of Dancing of Japan.

Upon graduation, she taught at her alma mater, the Philippine Women's University. During this period, Reyes worked to collect and document tribal and ethnic dances, which she believed were a great cultural treasure waiting to be tapped and adapted to the stage. She used her knowledge of choreography and creative touch to transform these tribal dances into stage performances. At PWU she organized the Filipino Folk Music and Dance Committee, which concentrated on choreographed folk dances and their performance at fiestas and special occasions.

She also wrote several books on dance including 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, Vol. I-VI. For her work Reyes-Urtula received several major awards. So she got in 1963 a Republic Cultural Heritage Award from President Ramon Magsaysay and won with the Bayanihan Folk Arts Center in 1965 Ramon Magsaysay Award. In 1988 she was appointed by President Corazon Aquino as a national artist of the Philippines in the category dance.

• 1963 - Conferred a title, "Bai Kiokmay" (means, most active princess in the Arts)) in a ritual performed by the Mandaya tribe of Davao, attended by the tribes of Agusan participated in by 16 datus.  

• 1963 - Republic Cultural Heritage Award for Research in Folk Dance  

• 1963 - International Women's Award in UNAP's Women of Distinction 

• 1973 - Patnubay ng Sining at Kalinangan Award from the City of Manila 

• 1982 - Tandang Sora Award for the Arts 

• 1988 - National Artist of the Philippines 

• 1990 - ASEAN Tourism Association for the Best ASEAN Cultural Effort, Pattayas, Thailand