As a farewell dance concert of sorts and a pre-opener to Ballet Manila’s 2004-2005 season, the BM Aberdeen delegation presented their AIYF program in a special show at the Star Theater at Star City last Friday. The show, Ballet Manila Goes to Aberdeen, is a best-of-show, combining the best dance commissions the ballet company has presented in the past nine years. The program reads like a who’s who in Filipino ballet – Tony Fabella, Agnes Locsin, Jojo Lucila and Ric Culalic – presenting a wide array of contemporary dances that stress Filipino culture and re-imagines ethnic dances through ballet.
The highlights of this dance program are Jojo Lucila’s Sari’t Bahag, a suite of dances with a program based on Igorot culture, and Agnes Locsin’s Sayao sa Pamlang, an elaborate Muslim dance re-interpreted in a neo-ethnic idiom.
Also in the program are Ric Culalic’s Arnis, a balletic interpretation of the native martial arts, complete with choreographed fight sequences, Fabella’s Dalagang Filipina, balletic voguing spiced up by sumptuous gowns by Auggie Cordero, Locsin’s athletic solo, Agila, and Fabella’s Dancing to Verdi, the only classical dance in the show. These pieces highlight the strength of the Ballet Manila dancers as a group. The shift from one dance to another, mostly neo-ethnic and all requiring strength and agility, is proof of the masterful training in the Russian Vaganova method the dance company offers.
Sari’t Bahag uses Bayanihan recordings in a complex dance piece that follows a warrior through courtship, marriage and death. Woven into this plot are elaborate dances that chronicle the daily Igorot life. You will mistake this for an authentic dance because of the music and costume. But when the dancers move they are challenged by a really physical choreography.
A matchmaker (Zaira Cosico) finds a match for the warrior (Glenn Ragel) only after an arduous search for maidens. The beloved (Mylene Aggabao) is wooed with much effort before the wedding. The passage of time is seen through the dance of the maidens, an updated version of the Banga, and the men’s tribal dance. When the soothsayer (Danica Rili) urges the men to war, the village is torn apart. Very few of the men survive, including the lead warrior.
Locsin’s Sayao sa Pamlang is unlike any Muslim dance. Utilizing Locsin’s fetish for speed – all slow movements are taken at a snail’s pace, while all fast movements move extremely fast – Sayao is also gymnastic in its requirements. A pas de trois for three maidens (Sofia Sangco, Gabriela Galvez and Jennifer Olayvar) is intricate in the way movements echo from one dancer to another. The piece ends with a Muslim maiden (Gabrielle Quinto) literally moving and hanging from bamboo poles in graceful movements that make this dance simply breathtaking.
Many of these dances were premiered by Lisa Macuja-Elizalde and Osias Barroso, BM’s principal dancers. This dance concert is one of the few shows where these dances are being presented with the junior members assuming the lead roles.
In Dalagang Pilipina, Sofia Sangco does her best to take on Macuja-Elizalde’s solo. It works, yes, but somehow she is still too young to vogue with confidence like her elder. Marian Faustino and Gerardo Francisco take on Macuja-Elizalde’s and Barosso’s parts in Dancing to Verdi, and while they partner well, they are physically mismatched since Faustino is a few inches taller than her partner. Faustino can execute all the dance’s show-stopping twirls, but she needs to build up stamina to do them with more confidence. Francisco is energetic in his solos, his youth a plus for the many leaps into the air.
In some of the dances, corps work can still be improved. The Aberdeen event is still a month away, but precision dancing would have been appreciated on the invitational night. Surely, Ballet Manila’s junior members will be able to further refine their work just in time for their performance at the festival.
How will Ballet Manila fare in Aberdeen?
Macuja-Elizalde explained before the show that she, too, participated in the Aberdeen festival when she was 14 as a member of the defunct Dance Theater Philippines. The 25-years-old age limit qualifies many of BM’s dancers to the event.
With their youth, energy and enthusiasm, plus a program that offers a sample of Filipino dances – from contemporized and neo-ethnic to classical dances – it is not surprising if Ballet Manila wins the Aberdeen’s applause.