It’s all in the family
October 27, 2003 | 12:00am
What is alive and kicking in this country and not being damaged or salvaged? Dance. Three major spectacles came our way: Ballet Philippines’ Icons, Philippine Ballet Theater’s Carmina Burana, and Ballet Manila’s Swan Lake. Only in the capital cities in the world can one get a feast like this within a couple of months. There’s one biting question though: Who’s watching them?
Ballet Manila’s Swan Lake showed off the dancers’ admirable artistry. I caught it on video and the television screen, most harsh, does not hide the inaccuracies shrouded by a live performance. I must congratulate Lisa Macuja and Osias Barroso for their superb dancing and training. Their precious performance was supported by the young dancers with almost proportionate merit.
Barroso slipped in his variation and without batting an eyelash sprang up to finish it with aplomb. Every performer (who would be lucky to experience it only once in his career) will always remember such a blow with regret. But gallantry of this kind is the very thing that teaches youngsters what professional dancing is all about. To bounce back as if nothing happened equals the weight of technique and artistry in a developed artist.
Is Macuja, with her two gorgeous youngsters, approaching the conclusion of a marvelous dancing career? Let’s hope not. At this point in her and Barroso’s careers, quality and technique are truly wedded and, like vintage wine, must be savored to the last drop.
PBT’s Carmina Burana, choreographed by David Campos Cantero, is a piece that exploits theatrical components with a European approach. It’s an exciting piece using masks, mantles and mind-boggling movements. Surprisingly, both BP and PBT opted to present their versions of Carmina Burana consecutively. Why not? If people here can watch the same version of Chinese, Hispanic and Pinoy soap operas on TV, they can watch two different versions of the same ballet in theater. The contrast in the two Carmina Buranas is as expansive as the distance between South America and Asia… as opposed to the matching and predictable formula of the soap operas.
I’m partial to Ballet Philippines’ Carmina Burana, the main feature of Icons. I danced it some 30 years ago when the ballet premiered in Manila in 1974. For the first time in my life, I saw the piece in its entirety. It was exhilarating to sit in the audience and mentally dance the movements embedded in the crevices of my whole being. Thirty years has not erased them.
Because I couldn’t pass up this rare treat, I saw the production three times. The Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra, under the baton of the extraordinary maestro Eugene Castillo, with a 100-voice choir composed of the Philippine Madrigal Singers, San Beda College Chorale, Our Lady of Fatima University Chorale, UE Chorale, Asian Youth Singing Ambassadors, Kilyawan Boys Choir, Philippine Madrigal Alumni Friends of MADZ, the exquisite voices of soprano Maria Katrina Saporsantos and baritones Ramon Acoymo and Noel Azcona, plus the sets of National Artist Salvador Bernal, a new work by Tony Fabella, Michael Vernon’s Opus, the BP dancers and, last but not least, Alice Reyes’ version of Carl Orff’s wonderful music, was something I had to see more than once.
How I wished half of BP’s full-blown publicity on Darna went to Carmina Burana, which is a more finished product with its music, choreography, orchestra, choir and dancing. If Darna endeavored to reach the youth with its red-hot approach, BP could have used the momentum to direct them back to the source of this creative output.
It was Alice Reyes after all who, beginning in the ’70s, painstakingly worked on collaborations with composers, conductors, directors, bands, singers, actors, visual and multi media artists and mixed their creative juices into one complex production. I remember performing in her Rama Hari and Tales of the Manuvu before audiences filling the aisles of the CCP Main Theater because all the seats were taken. At that time, patrons and students formed long queues at the box office, something they do today for sex films.
Carmina Burana premiered in 1974, and the people who saw it this time asked, "You mean they were doing productions of superior quality then?" Yes! But not too often now. That’s why more people should have seen it. Those who did on the last performance gave a standing ovation with tears in their eyes, a gratifying endorsement of a 30-year-old classic.
It is good to keep producing old works. It enables young Filipino choreographers to study their dance history, which should add another dimension to their contemporary pieces. So that was the style in the ’50s, ’60s, ’70s, ’80s and ’90s. This is where I want to go from there, pretty much the way Martha Graham’s and George Balan-chine’s pieces are revered to this day, so should it be with the works of all the Filipino choreographers who started it all.
BP dancers are lucky to have such a vast repertoire to dance. This season alone, they had to hurdle with the theatrical Darna, Carmina Burana, which is total modern dancing and, soon, the very classical Nutcracker. This has always been one of the Ballet Philippines’ strengths, dancing in a variety of styles. Not one company in the whole world has this unique ability.
Honestly, I realize only now that my eldest sister, Alice, was an excellent choreographer. Having been in all her ballets, I had never seen her works from the audience’s point of view. All I could think of as I watched Carmina Burana was, "I could have learned so much if I saw this when I was younger."
I was happy for the dancers who, at last, enjoyed the swirling, sweeping steps of an Alice Reyes choreography. Even as they are harsh to the body, they are ultimately wonderful to dance. There is a kind of freedom one feels within the confines of her defined musical phrasing, the uncompromising precision in her group work, and the surge of leaps, twists and falls that appear out of nowhere. You have to be a good dancer to do them and it would challenge anyone to master his technical ability, musicality and sensitivity.
I remember our rehearsals. She would make us stay till 1 a.m. just to get the steps and timing right. I hated the grinding and scraping of the knees in the beginning. I panted at every leap and turn, and was annoyed by every dancer who made a mistake. That meant repeating every scrape, leap and turn all over again.
Nestor Jardin, CCP’s august president, was my partner in "Veni Veni Veni," and we struggled through the lifts and spirals. Being dance apprentices then, we were dead serious. We tried to get away with our tormenting rawness behind the more experienced dancers like Tony Fabella, Gener Caringal and Nonoy Froilan, who were the leads. After the grueling rehearsals Nes, Nonoy, another dancer and I would have a singing competition to ease our nerves. With a stopwatch, we would time ourselves to see who could hold the highest note longest. Was it Nes or Nonoy who won? I forget. Maybe we should compete again.
Nes has since moved on to become an administrative icon. Tony now directs and choreographs for all the major ballet companies and schools in the country. Gener is PBT artistic director. Nonoy became the country’s premiere danseur for two decades. Because we are members of the BP family, we joined eight other ex-BP dancers in a heady mission to coach the present league.
Marching to the CCP’s rehearsal hall we, together with Monette Victoria, Cecile Sicangco, Jojo Lucila, Edward Malagkit, Butch Esperanza, Noordin Jumalon, Ida Beltran (who restaged the ballet) and Alice herself, coerced the dancers to attack the steps in the same style that took us about 20 years to acquire. It was unfair but philanthropic. I hope the dancers appreciated that for all its worth.
The most remarkable story is the one of Gener jumping from the PBT to the BP Carmina Burana. One was being rehearsed on stage upstairs and the other at the rehearsal hall downstairs. Now that’s competition at its friendliest. Gener was truly helping all the dancers in a universal way.
In this context, Alice’s works should be danced by all the companies and not just Ballet Philippines. This baby of hers, which she founded in 1969 with Eddie Elejar, has proven that it can stand on its own. Alice had the foresight to prop it up and enable it to exist without her from day one.
It is time to see Alice and BP as two separate entities. One is a formidable artist and the other, a formidable dance company. The umbilical cord must be severed. Every dancer should experience Alice’s ballets for the enlightenment and joy they give. BP can share them with as many artists as possible, without regret.
Denisa Reyes, the artistic director of Ballet Philippines, and Gener Caringal, the artistic director of Philippine Ballet Theater, were among the original members of Ballet Philippines. Lisa Macuja, the artistic director of Ballet Manila, danced leading classical roles with Ballet Philippines and the Philippine Ballet Theater for many years. No wonder they have similar and confusing names. They all belong to the unique family of Philippine dance.
So, let’s go back to the biting question: Who’s watching them? Again, in the coming months, BP and BM will show their own versions of the Nutcracker. BM will show their Russian version by the choreographer Vainonen in November through December at the Star City with free rides, Cancan and Belen.
BP will show my version, a turn-of-the-century Filipino Nutcracker, with some of society’s bigwigs dancing on the CCP stage beginning Dec. 5. Come and enjoy the Nutcracker feast. Our hungry children should savor this food for the soul especially in an age of a society reeking of political damage, salvaging and stealing. It would be good for them to rest in the familial bosom of dance.
Ballet Manila’s Swan Lake showed off the dancers’ admirable artistry. I caught it on video and the television screen, most harsh, does not hide the inaccuracies shrouded by a live performance. I must congratulate Lisa Macuja and Osias Barroso for their superb dancing and training. Their precious performance was supported by the young dancers with almost proportionate merit.
Barroso slipped in his variation and without batting an eyelash sprang up to finish it with aplomb. Every performer (who would be lucky to experience it only once in his career) will always remember such a blow with regret. But gallantry of this kind is the very thing that teaches youngsters what professional dancing is all about. To bounce back as if nothing happened equals the weight of technique and artistry in a developed artist.
Is Macuja, with her two gorgeous youngsters, approaching the conclusion of a marvelous dancing career? Let’s hope not. At this point in her and Barroso’s careers, quality and technique are truly wedded and, like vintage wine, must be savored to the last drop.
PBT’s Carmina Burana, choreographed by David Campos Cantero, is a piece that exploits theatrical components with a European approach. It’s an exciting piece using masks, mantles and mind-boggling movements. Surprisingly, both BP and PBT opted to present their versions of Carmina Burana consecutively. Why not? If people here can watch the same version of Chinese, Hispanic and Pinoy soap operas on TV, they can watch two different versions of the same ballet in theater. The contrast in the two Carmina Buranas is as expansive as the distance between South America and Asia… as opposed to the matching and predictable formula of the soap operas.
I’m partial to Ballet Philippines’ Carmina Burana, the main feature of Icons. I danced it some 30 years ago when the ballet premiered in Manila in 1974. For the first time in my life, I saw the piece in its entirety. It was exhilarating to sit in the audience and mentally dance the movements embedded in the crevices of my whole being. Thirty years has not erased them.
Because I couldn’t pass up this rare treat, I saw the production three times. The Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra, under the baton of the extraordinary maestro Eugene Castillo, with a 100-voice choir composed of the Philippine Madrigal Singers, San Beda College Chorale, Our Lady of Fatima University Chorale, UE Chorale, Asian Youth Singing Ambassadors, Kilyawan Boys Choir, Philippine Madrigal Alumni Friends of MADZ, the exquisite voices of soprano Maria Katrina Saporsantos and baritones Ramon Acoymo and Noel Azcona, plus the sets of National Artist Salvador Bernal, a new work by Tony Fabella, Michael Vernon’s Opus, the BP dancers and, last but not least, Alice Reyes’ version of Carl Orff’s wonderful music, was something I had to see more than once.
How I wished half of BP’s full-blown publicity on Darna went to Carmina Burana, which is a more finished product with its music, choreography, orchestra, choir and dancing. If Darna endeavored to reach the youth with its red-hot approach, BP could have used the momentum to direct them back to the source of this creative output.
It was Alice Reyes after all who, beginning in the ’70s, painstakingly worked on collaborations with composers, conductors, directors, bands, singers, actors, visual and multi media artists and mixed their creative juices into one complex production. I remember performing in her Rama Hari and Tales of the Manuvu before audiences filling the aisles of the CCP Main Theater because all the seats were taken. At that time, patrons and students formed long queues at the box office, something they do today for sex films.
Carmina Burana premiered in 1974, and the people who saw it this time asked, "You mean they were doing productions of superior quality then?" Yes! But not too often now. That’s why more people should have seen it. Those who did on the last performance gave a standing ovation with tears in their eyes, a gratifying endorsement of a 30-year-old classic.
It is good to keep producing old works. It enables young Filipino choreographers to study their dance history, which should add another dimension to their contemporary pieces. So that was the style in the ’50s, ’60s, ’70s, ’80s and ’90s. This is where I want to go from there, pretty much the way Martha Graham’s and George Balan-chine’s pieces are revered to this day, so should it be with the works of all the Filipino choreographers who started it all.
BP dancers are lucky to have such a vast repertoire to dance. This season alone, they had to hurdle with the theatrical Darna, Carmina Burana, which is total modern dancing and, soon, the very classical Nutcracker. This has always been one of the Ballet Philippines’ strengths, dancing in a variety of styles. Not one company in the whole world has this unique ability.
Honestly, I realize only now that my eldest sister, Alice, was an excellent choreographer. Having been in all her ballets, I had never seen her works from the audience’s point of view. All I could think of as I watched Carmina Burana was, "I could have learned so much if I saw this when I was younger."
I was happy for the dancers who, at last, enjoyed the swirling, sweeping steps of an Alice Reyes choreography. Even as they are harsh to the body, they are ultimately wonderful to dance. There is a kind of freedom one feels within the confines of her defined musical phrasing, the uncompromising precision in her group work, and the surge of leaps, twists and falls that appear out of nowhere. You have to be a good dancer to do them and it would challenge anyone to master his technical ability, musicality and sensitivity.
I remember our rehearsals. She would make us stay till 1 a.m. just to get the steps and timing right. I hated the grinding and scraping of the knees in the beginning. I panted at every leap and turn, and was annoyed by every dancer who made a mistake. That meant repeating every scrape, leap and turn all over again.
Nestor Jardin, CCP’s august president, was my partner in "Veni Veni Veni," and we struggled through the lifts and spirals. Being dance apprentices then, we were dead serious. We tried to get away with our tormenting rawness behind the more experienced dancers like Tony Fabella, Gener Caringal and Nonoy Froilan, who were the leads. After the grueling rehearsals Nes, Nonoy, another dancer and I would have a singing competition to ease our nerves. With a stopwatch, we would time ourselves to see who could hold the highest note longest. Was it Nes or Nonoy who won? I forget. Maybe we should compete again.
Nes has since moved on to become an administrative icon. Tony now directs and choreographs for all the major ballet companies and schools in the country. Gener is PBT artistic director. Nonoy became the country’s premiere danseur for two decades. Because we are members of the BP family, we joined eight other ex-BP dancers in a heady mission to coach the present league.
Marching to the CCP’s rehearsal hall we, together with Monette Victoria, Cecile Sicangco, Jojo Lucila, Edward Malagkit, Butch Esperanza, Noordin Jumalon, Ida Beltran (who restaged the ballet) and Alice herself, coerced the dancers to attack the steps in the same style that took us about 20 years to acquire. It was unfair but philanthropic. I hope the dancers appreciated that for all its worth.
The most remarkable story is the one of Gener jumping from the PBT to the BP Carmina Burana. One was being rehearsed on stage upstairs and the other at the rehearsal hall downstairs. Now that’s competition at its friendliest. Gener was truly helping all the dancers in a universal way.
In this context, Alice’s works should be danced by all the companies and not just Ballet Philippines. This baby of hers, which she founded in 1969 with Eddie Elejar, has proven that it can stand on its own. Alice had the foresight to prop it up and enable it to exist without her from day one.
It is time to see Alice and BP as two separate entities. One is a formidable artist and the other, a formidable dance company. The umbilical cord must be severed. Every dancer should experience Alice’s ballets for the enlightenment and joy they give. BP can share them with as many artists as possible, without regret.
Denisa Reyes, the artistic director of Ballet Philippines, and Gener Caringal, the artistic director of Philippine Ballet Theater, were among the original members of Ballet Philippines. Lisa Macuja, the artistic director of Ballet Manila, danced leading classical roles with Ballet Philippines and the Philippine Ballet Theater for many years. No wonder they have similar and confusing names. They all belong to the unique family of Philippine dance.
So, let’s go back to the biting question: Who’s watching them? Again, in the coming months, BP and BM will show their own versions of the Nutcracker. BM will show their Russian version by the choreographer Vainonen in November through December at the Star City with free rides, Cancan and Belen.
BP will show my version, a turn-of-the-century Filipino Nutcracker, with some of society’s bigwigs dancing on the CCP stage beginning Dec. 5. Come and enjoy the Nutcracker feast. Our hungry children should savor this food for the soul especially in an age of a society reeking of political damage, salvaging and stealing. It would be good for them to rest in the familial bosom of dance.
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