Ballet and Broadway merge at Aliw Theater

Ever since discovering Lisa Macuja-Elizalde and Ballet Manila, we have never failed to be impressed by the mix in Ballet & Ballads which brings together dance and song. Once again in Heart to Heart, the latest installment of the Ballet & Ballads series, Lisa succeeds in merging popular exponents of musical theater with the homegrown mix of Filipino, neo-classical and classical ballets.

Ballet Manila as the country’s leading classical dance company was established in 1995 by Lisa and Osias Barroso. Apart from being trained through Ballet Manila, they were also taught by visiting teachers from the Agrippina Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet, formerly known as Leningrad whose famous graduates included George Balanchine, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Rudolph Nureyev and Anna Pavlova.

Heart to Heart is yet another of Lisa’s continuing dream of making ballet palatable, even popular to the Filipino masa in the end. If William Shakespeare started off as masa and became mainstream, Lisa is doing the opposite. If the crowd we joined lining up for tickets at the Aliw Theater is any indication, it also looks like she has succeeded.

With a tag of Heart 2 Heart — Ballet & Ballads, Lisa added another attraction — the West End Mamas and Papas. The Mamas are Gia Macuja Atchison, Cez Campos Bonner and Maya Barredo Duffy who had performed as a trio in Manila winning the Best New Group in the 26th Annual Aliw Awards. Since the Mamas were such a success, Lisa practically moved heaven and earth to get their husbands, the Papas to join this latest offering. They are Robert Atchison, Nick Bonner and Gerard Duffy.

It should be stressed that all the guests — Mamas and Papas — are artists from the West End in London having appeared in Miss Saigon, The Lion King, Les Miserablés, The Pirates of Pensance, The King and I, Jesus Christ Superstar and Starlight Express. The Papas also joined in the singing of Filipino songs to the delight of the audience.  

The humongous Aliw Theater was full and that in itself is already an achievement. We saw a few friends, some with their children in tow. We asked if they were regular Ballet enthusiasts. They said this was their first time; that they were interested how the show would merge ballet with Broadway.

The show started with the familiar Abba song I Have a Dream which had later been included in the Mamma Mia! musical. Gia and husband Robert Atchison started singing with Lisa dancing to the music. The APO Hiking Society classic Doo Bi Doo had the pairs of Cez and Nick Bonner with Maya and Gerard Duffy performing with the PBF (Project Ballet Future) scholarship program dancers.

Next came the pas de deux of Harlequins, Lisa recalled dancing as a graduating student from the Russian Ballet Academy in 1984; Francis Jaena’s Shutter followed with its jazz-like movements. The beautifully choreographed piece The Last Poem by Augustus “Bam” Damian III which tells the story of a man (Rudy de Dios) and his dying wife (Lisa) left the audience in tears. The West End Mamas and Papas entered to perform a medley from Les Miserablés before the break.

By this time, the audience had already been sufficiently engaged in the show’s concept. Three choreographies were premiered in Gerardo Francisco’s Corvus imitating movements of the crow it was named after; Jammin by Lisa featuring a violinist, young trumpet player and 16 ballerinas on points; and Ernest Mandap’s Lune with memories of the Charleston era.

Nick and Gerard performed Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Starlight Express, the Mamas did I’m a Woman, the neoclassic MAZN by Bam Damian with four dancers, Aramica of what must be the entire male ensemble; an OPM medley and the finale of the entire cast.

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