Celebrating Heritage through dance Filipino Heritage Festival rolls into Cebu with Philippine Ballet Theater

CEBU, Philippines – The Philippine Ballet Theatre continues to impress its audiences with dramatic and poetic renditions of the classical ballet—always evoking through well-executed performances its tradition of elegance and sophistication. But it’s not always onstage glam for this group as its members share the importance and beauty of their craft by way of outreach programs, wherein they get to introduce classical ballet to the Filipino masses.

The group was founded in 1987 and has since established itself as the pre-eminent classical ballet company in the Philippines today. It was borne out of an alliance of leading dance groups in the eighties, but immediately won recognition as a resident ballet company of the Cultural Center of the Philippines.

Philippine Ballet Theatre has now expanded its vision and pursues the goal of bringing the upscale art of dance to the general appreciation among Filipino audiences. With its concurrent preservation of the rich and elegant classical story ballets, such as Swan Lake, Giselle, Nutcracker, and Raymonda, PBT also launches contemporary ballets that are of emotional depth, dramatic realism and stark inventiveness like the critically-acclaimed “Darangen Ni Bantugen.”

The play consists of 17 parts and narrates the history of the Maranao, the people residing near Lake Lanao in Mindanao. In Maranao, the word Darangen means “to narrate in song.” One of the segments of The Darangen is the “Sarimanok,” which is based on a popular epic among the Muslims in Southern Philippines. The dance-drama revolves around a hero named Prince Indarapatra. His search for the Moon Goddess leads to adventure, duels with fantastic creatures and a final heroic conquest.

The production will feature world-class principal ballet dancers Jared Jehowil Tan and Faye Abigail Tan. It is choreographed by PBT’s very own Artistic Director, Gener Caringal, accompanied by Jesse Lucas’ original musical scoring. Production design (set and costume) is created by National Artist Salvador Bernal.

Watch this rare and exquisite performance for free at the SM Theater One on May 21, 2009 at 6pm. For inquiries, you may call the Arts Council of Cebu Foundation, Inc. at 233-0452.