If there’s one show you shouldn’t miss this season, it’s Pepe’s Secret Christmas, a ballet musical with performances at the different Ayala Malls till Dec. 15. If making it to CCP is quite a challenge for you, catching this should be easier as you can watch it while completing your Christmas shopping list. It won’t even dent your shopping budget as the show is free for all mall-goers.
But make no bones about it, this is not your usual mall show. “We wanted to come up with a show of the highest quality,” relates Sofia Zobel Elizalde, founder and managing director of Steps Dance Project, which produced the ballet. To begin with, the dancers are the top scholars of Steps, which is accredited by the prestigious Royal Academy of Dance (RAD) London, one of the world’s most influential dance education and training organizations.
“We also wanted to get the best minds in the theater and dance world. It’s really a dream team: Floy Quintos for the script, Gino Gonzales for production and costume design, our own James Laforteza for direction and Jun Saagundo and Jeffrey Espejo for choreography; and Katsch Catoy as lighting and technical director.”
These are names you would encounter in the best productions during the performing arts season. We always look forward to Floy’s plays at CCP and UP and Gino’s sets and costumes never fail to amaze us, whether it’s a Broadway musical or a Shakespeare play. The shows of Steps that we have seen at Greenbelt are also top-notch, with fine dancing and innovative choreography.
“But one reason you have to watch is that this is our very own Beatrix Potter, a Filipino version of those beloved children’s books in music and dance,” says Sofia, trying to convince us to go on that busy day when there were so many things going on including a ball to prepare for that evening. She said the magic words since, just like her, we have always loved the books of that English author and illustrator who conjured the most fascinating tales and images of animals that dressed and acted like humans. We even made it the theme of one of our store’s Christmas windows.
Showing the need to have respect for animals and nature while depicting the rich aspects of Filipino heritage and values were the basic guidelines in creating the musical. “With these in mind, we wanted to produce a show that would be entertaining for all age groups, from grandparents to children.”
The title of the ballet is intriguing and with a creative team like this, one can never predict what wonders and surprises are in store. The show we saw was at the new Glorietta activity center, which has the advantage of a very high ceiling. We were greeted by Gino Gonzales’ monumental proscenium with a grid of windows. The stunning double arch sets the tone with latticework reminiscent of ventanillas in a colonial-era Malolos mansion. In each window is a period Las Piñas parol made of translucent papel de japon, its lace-like tail fluttering in the wind.
“Floy and I decided to set it in the Commonwealth period, the 1930s to 1940s golden age, which was very elegant,” Gino says about the production design. Beneath the proscenium is a canvas blowup of a Romulo Galicano impressionist painting — an idyllic country scene in pastels, which dictated the color palette for the sets and costumes. The painting was quite a find, which the production designer discovered in the attic of the artist’s home. It actually depicts the artist’s humble childhood home in Novaliches. “But it’s perfect for the period of the story when nature was pristine and untainted.”
The ballet opens in a small town during the last day of the Misa de Gallo dawn Mass, with Pepe falling asleep in church until he is awakened by a parade of chickens dressed like humans in the finest clothes like those worn by the Señors and Señoras. Unable to contain his amazement, he calls his mother’s attention but is made to keep quiet until a pig and a goat walk in, looking like they’re all dressed for a rigodon. As more animals appear, Pepe could no longer contain his curiosity and decides to follow the parade without telling his mother.
Getting lost in the darkness, he encounters an animal dressed in an embroidered barong with silk trousers. Fearing the creature is a maligno or an evil spirit, Pepe retreats until it talks and assures him that he is Kulas Kabaw, their farm carabao.
Kulas then guides Pepe into this magical world of animals who come together to greet the Niño or Christ child: “We get together to dance! It is our way of saying welcome into our hearts, Niño Hesus!” Incredulous, Pepe is assured that animals really dance all the time, in tune with the seasons and in harmony with the wind, the sky and the stars. “We dance for every little reason, you just don’t watch!”
True enough, all the animals show their prowess as the baile begins. The chickens Teroy Tandang and Inday Inahin strut in their earthy red outfits accented with feathers, dancing to Muslim-inspired music accompanied by a kulintang. Director James Laforteza’s choice of music was perfect for the pecking movements of the fowls while alluding to the royal elegance of the sarimanok, the legendary bird of the Maranaos. Jun Saagundo’s choreography was also spot-on, recalling Mindanao’s tribal dance movements but with a modern twist.
A heart-rending ballad introduces Bertang Baboy and Kardong Kambing, the pig and goat whose love was never meant to be. Dressed in a Maria Clara and two-piece sharkskin suit respectively, they dance a tender pas de deux under the stars that are ruling against them.
Gusting Galis and Purita Pusa, the dog and cat who are usually fighting, decide to call a truce and do a jazz number instead with the cutest three blind mice in polkadot outfits and canes.
Just as Pepe is already feeling overwhelmed, Kulas tells him that there is more. Aside from those animals from their family’s farm, there are also the animals of the forest, and here the carabao gives the boy lessons on maintaining harmony with nature and giving animals their space by preserving their natural habitat. Out come the dapper Matitinik na Matsing monkeys in windowpane check blazers and pedal pushers and the Dahong Palay snake in a slinky fringed siren gown.
The finale is reserved for “the most beautiful of all,” the tikling or heron, in a white tutu whose entrance is heralded by a corps de ballet of alitaptap fireflies in golden terno-topped tutus. The tikling does her version of “The Dying Swan” to the tune of Usahay, the Cebuano kundiman with a haunting, melancholy melody. “Floy wanted a Kabuki quality to this sequence,” recalls Sofia, alluding to the Japanese origins of the bird that would migrate to the Philippine marshes and forests. Sadly, many of these rest areas for the tikling have been destroyed by man so not as many of these birds are seen nowadays, making the song most appropriate for the tikling’s dance.
It was a very touching scene and we observed many in the audience holding back their tears. In the various sequences of the show, in fact, there was always a strong connection between the animal characters and the viewers. To think the dancers were wearing masks and many of them even had lots of foam padding to simulate the shapes of the creatures they were playing, making it difficult not just to dance but to convey emotion as well.
Although the masks were realistically done by Mountain Rock Productions, it took the skill and artistry of the dancers to breathe life into them. “They really loved the roles they were playing and made an effort to get into character,” says Sofia. So aside from dancing flawlessly as a result of disciplined training and constant rehearsals, these dancers can also tell the story and communicate the feelings of the characters. “They work hard. We maintain a very professional atmosphere in the studio. But most of all, they love what they’re doing. The kids can be so into it they don’t even want to go home at the end of the day.”
Some of the children like Elwince Magbitang, who plays one of the mice, are actually Steps scholars from CENTEX, the school established by Ayala Foundation for economically disadvantaged students. “They’re in a different world, “ says Gino who would talk to them during rehearsals. “They still have their regular school and homework to do but dancing is something else for them, it’s a passion. They don’t mind the extra hours they put into it. “
Lope Tobias Lim who plays Pepe, on the other hand, is a merit scholar. The son of Ana Valdes Lim who is a Julliard graduate and artistic director of Assumption College’s theatre group, Lope really wanted to dance. “He had this drive and had so much charisma that we had to take him into our program,” relates Sofia. Scholars are usually enlisted at a young age, around seven to eight years old, based on their aptitude for dance and musicality. Aside from the superior training they receive in the school, some of them also get to go for seminars and training abroad like at the American Ballet Theatre in New York. Teachers like the former ABT Colombian dancer Flavio Salazar also come to Manila to lend their expertise to the Steps curriculum.
It is no wonder that many of the graduates of the school have made it to dance companies abroad, the most recently celebrated one being Marcelino Libao who is now a soloist at the Hamburg Ballet. Who knows in which part of the world these children will be after all the training they get? “For the moment, they’re just enjoying themselves,” says Sofia. And it shows: There is just so much joy in their performance that there seems to be no better way to invite the Niño into our hearts this Christmas.
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Pepe’s Secret Christmas will be showing at the Ayala Center Cebu (TheTerraces) today at 4 p.m. and 7 p.m.; Market! Market! (Activity Center) on Dec. 9 at 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. and Alabang Town Center (Corte Expansion) on Dec. 15 at 4 p.m. and 7 p.m.