MANILA, Philippines - Ballet Manila reinterprets classic Pinoy stories in its latest production at Aliw Theater.
In 1992 Don Ramon Roces and co-editor Severino Reyes founded the most enduring and endearing of Tagalog publications, Liwayway magazine. Addressing the man on the street, Liwayway (meaning “Dawn”) was written in the best literacy Tagalog of the era, with many Filipino classics serialized on its pages. Needing a space filler, Reyes had written a story for children, “Ang Plautin ni Periking,” about a kind-hearted boy who went about on a flying carpet, with a magical flute. Severino Reyes thought of adopting a pen name, that of real-life storyteller Gervacia Guzman de Zamora who in her baro’t saya, sitting on her sillon, was known to tell the most fascinating folk tales, straight out of her baul.
Lisa Macuja Elizalde, back from years in Leningrad where she was making waves with her bravura dancing and technical prowess, founded Ballet Manila in 1995. Today Ballet Manila is the country’s finest classical ballet company, with 50 dancers steeped in the Vaganova discipline and company that is prepared to perform a full-length classical ballet at moment’s notice, having on its repertoire the staples Swan Lake, Don Quixote, Romeo and Juliet, the Nutcracker, Giselle, Le Corsaire, Carmen, and La Bayadre, plus the only Philippines-based prima ballerina.
Artistic directors Macuja-Elizalde and Osias Barroso’s commitment from the very start was to bring ballet to the people, to the masses who enjoy the art form just as heartily as do the chi-chi crowds that come to cocktail galas. They have been known to dance anywhere there is an audience and a floor, traveling to far-flung areas of the country, just as they perform all over the world. Dance they have done, to critical acclaim, from Russia to the Americas and all over Asia. Today Ballet Manila’s vision of performing Filipino ballets in the classical idiom, for an international audience, has become a beautiful reality.
“Mga Kuwento ni Lola Basyang,” a trio of stories told in such crystal clear characterization by a perfectly polished ensemble, was nothing short of dazzling. Even toddlers staying up past their bedtime were in awe, cheering the “good guys,” laughing at their antics, holding their breath as bird-princes and princesses took to the skies way above their heads, or a long snake slithered past them in the form of a lantern. Costumes were done in bold splashes of color, and the sets so picturesque and lively the children were lost in Lola Basyang’s lively stories from beginning to end. My grandkids not only loved the entire show, they have asked to come back and see it again.
Ballet Manila runs “Tatlong Kuwento Ni Lola Basyang” every Saturday, 7 p.m., at Aliw Theater, CCP Complex, Pasay City. Tickets cost P100. For information, visit http://balletmanila.ph/main.shtml.