There is life after retirement for Cecile Sicangco
July 1, 2002 | 12:00am
When Cecile Sicangco steps on the Main Theater stage of the Cultural Center of the Philippines on July 7 for the final evening performance of Ballet Philippines’ season opener Joie de Danse, she will be making her final bow as BP company member.
It has been a fruitful 25 years with the country’s leading contemporary dance company, bringing the joy of dance on every stage she performed on both here and abroad. And she believes it is fitting that she finally retires from performing.
"In the beginning, I’ll miss the stage," Sicangco admits. "But it will not be hard, since I have done everything. I do not have to look for something else, since I’ve done most of them, if not all of them."
When she speaks of "them," she is referring to the myriad roles she has essayed in her career as a ballerina. However, she counts two occasions as most unforgettable in her career.
Performing alongside American Ballet Theater danseur Julio Bocca in Giselle gave her a high, because it was an opportunity "to perform with a high-caliber guest artist."
"I had only two rehearsals with him before we went on stage," she recalls.
Another highlight is having danced in Agnes Locsin’s version of Romeo and Juliet. The role of Juliet was nothing new for Sicangco, but dancing in a production designed by her brother Eduardo was. Not only did she find performing against his sets exciting, she was also wearing costumes he designed.
"It was the only time that we collaborated as artists, and we took our bows together," she adds.
Other than that, she has nothing more to ask for.
As a tribute to Sicangco’s unmatched dedication to Ballet Philippines, Joie de Danse is dedicated to her. It features the ballet company’s best performances directed by some of the best French choreographers who have worked with them through the years. French dance artists whose dance pieces are featured in the dance concert include Claude Brumachon, Lionel Hoche, Redha and Guillaume Compain.
Compain has created a solo for Sicangco which will receive its premier in this dance concert. Compain, who acts as guest ballet master for this show, says he is interested in bringing out a different side of the ballerina.
"The Ballet Philippines’ dancers are technically good," Compain says. "But what I want to bring out from Cecile is serenity in her movement. I’m looking for interpretation from the guts."
Sicangco became a BP company member in 1973 and after three years left to study at the American Ballet Center in New York. After rejoining the company in 1980, she rose from the ranks, performing lead roles in modern and classical ballets, like Swan Lake, Giselle, Songs a Wayfarer, Season of Flight, Firebird, Coppelia, La Bayadere, The Nutcracker, Cinderella, Amada and 0.
Because of her talent in management and in the aesthetics and techniques of ballet, she was chosen in 1987 as one of two Filipino delegates to an intensive training seminar on the works of Balanchine and Fokine in Varna, Bulgaria. That same year, she was among the featured Filipino artists who performed with the stars of the American Ballet at the CCP. In July 1990, she went on a three-week tour of New Zealand as a guest artist of the Royal New Zealand Ballet, where she was warmly received by critics.
Sicangco is a Negros Centennial Medal of Honor awardee in the field of ballet for 1990 and Araw ng Maynila Patnubay awardee in 1993.
As for her plans after retirement, she intends to devote time to her dance studio where she practices the Pilates method of body conditioning.
"A dancer’s life is quite abnormal. Once you become a full-time dancer, you say goodbye to your social life, because everything else takes a back seat. But when dancers find a chance to have a good time, they really have a good time," she says. "Now, I can just sit in a coffee shop and not think of rehearsals. I have all the time in the world to do what I want to do – whether it’s to stay put or to travel. I can even declare my own holidays."
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