Men & Women And The Eternal Dance

It is a relationship as old as the world, when God decided that it was not good for man to be alone and gave him a partner who was the same yet different. And when man pointed a finger at woman and said, "She made me do it" the tension in that singular relationship was cast to endure through all time.

Throughout human history, poems, plays, paintings, studies, surveys, songs, theses and treatises have explored this singular relationship...and yet have not come close to defining or understanding the dynamics of it. What goes on between men and women, what chemistry, what combustion,what conflict, what celebration?

Ballet Philippines, the country’s premiere dance company, takes its turn at interpreting this relationship in five provocative choreographies in its 36th season opening concert, Men&Women, which goes on stage August 5, 6 and 7 at the Cultural Center.

"Provocative and passionate" are the terms used to describe the pieces choreographed by Ballet Philippines artistic director Bam Damian, associate artistic director Alden Lugnasin and international dancer/choreographer Enrico Labayen.

Opening the program is Labayen’s "Stringed, Strung & Estranged", a work that explores the nature of romantic love: its violence, sensitivity, sexuality, and idealism. The piece comments on love and its failures, its layers of transparencies and associations. It is an erotic power play between the sexes, and the sharp pointe work of the company’s strong corps of female dancers eloquently magnifies women’s erotic aggression.

First performed by the choreographer’s LAB. Projekt Group-USA in San Francisco in 1996, Dance Magazine hailed the work as "hypnotic and mesmerizing…rarely does a choreographer of contemporary dance manage to combine gracefully the technical precision and beauty of classical ballet and the innovation of modern art…Labayen succeeds at this task..."

Artistic director Damian presents three new works. "After Whom?" is devoid of storyline and simply concentrates on the physicality, dynamics and exuberance of dance. Himself a celebrated dancer on European stages before retiring last year to come home,Damian challenges his dancers–male and female–in a high-energy piece, driven by the powerful music of Portuguese group Von Magnet.

Controversial and scandalous when it first hit the stage in the early 1900s with the legendary Nijinsky, "L’apres midi d’un faun" or "The Afternoon of a Faun" is re-interpreted in this charged pas de deux that explores man’s erotic fantasy. The original music by Claude Debussy lives on in this piece, titled "L*".

"Anecdotes of Hate" deals with three real characters–John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks–from the American civil rights movement and the message of equality and freedom they represented. Embodiments of Hope, Malevolence, Fire, Flames, as well as the KKK confront these complex issues, to music by Bohuslav Martinu created as a protest against the evils of the Second World War.

Audiences should know by now that Alden Lugnasin’s choreography is bound to take them through unchartered waters to places unknown. "Bound" is no exception, it seems, a "seductive, dauntless piece that exposes the journey of men and women" battling for dominance. And the weapon of choice? The parasol. Go figure.

"In ‘Bound’, the men’s role is to bow to the women’s cry of vengeance," says dancer Biag Gaongen.

Articulates Rhea Dumdum, another dancer, "What’s in a parasol? In some cultures, the parasol is synonymous with a woman’s femininity... But in Lugnasin’s ‘Bound’, she uses the parasol as a weapon against men who try to force her into submission. Her feminine wiles and charms are her known weapons, which go head to head with men’s own punches."

Punches and parasols, struggles and fantasies. Dance can say so much, and yet the questions are never answered, and the eternal dynamic between men and women dances on...

Catch Men&Women at the CCP on August 5 and 6 at 8 pm, and August 6 and 7 at 2 pm. Call Ballet Philippines at tel 551-1003 for tickets.