Rock. Ballet. Bonifacio

MANILA, Philippines - It’s hard to imagine ballerinas and ballerinos dancing gracefully to rock music’s swagger and rawness. But it’s not impossible.

In fact, when you wed the two, what you get is something quite fantastic, something you can’t really put your finger on; deciphering its many nuances might just leave you more at a loss than when you started. But if you ever find yourself lucky enough to witness the two combined, what you’ll realize is that ballet and rock music don’t jibe the way cookies and milk do. Instead, they jibe like ice cold Pale Pilsen and paella served straight from the pan.

Ballet Philippines ties up with Rock Ed and the National Historical Commission, presenting an offering of contemporary ballet and rock music to tell Andres Bonifacio’s story. The performance is aptly called [rock] Supremo, combining two contrasting words — the word “rock” closely associated with the lowly elements (i.e. “rock bottom”), and “Supremo” meaning pretty much nothing else and nothing less than supremo. It is a story of conflict and contradictions (with Bonifacio himself being poor yet superior; the schism itself between our national heroes) and execution (with rock and roll coarseness being coupled with ballet’s refinement). From the onset, the play commits itself to a tall but exciting order.

“Abs pa lang nila, talo na kami, eh,” Francis “Brew” Reyes of the Peso Movement comments on the ballerinos taking the stage, “But seriously, when we heard that we were doing this we thought, ‘why not?’ Anything’s possible with any form of art.” Peso Movement holds the honor of interpreting Andres Bonifacio’s very own “Pag-ibig sa Tinubuang Lupa” for the show. Along with Sandwich, Rico Blanco, Gloc 9, Dong Abay, Peryodiko, Kai Honasan, Pedicab, Ebe Dancel, Radioactive Sago Project and Tarsius, they set [rock] Supremo’s beat and groove under Francis De Veyra’s musical direction.

Pushing the limits

The idea for [rock] Supremo came about when Paul Alexander Morales, its head choreographer, thought of pushing the limits of song and dance. A full-blown production didn’t seem too farfetched after Rock Ed came out with Rock Rizal in 2011, a celebration of our national hero’s life and works through rock and roll. And with Ballet Philippines performing side by side with Radioactive Sago Project in the 2012 Independence Day Celebrations, dancing onstage as the band played Mr. Pogi in Space, among other numbers, the idea of pairing OPM rock with contemporary ballet saw the light.

“Altogether, rock ‘n’ roll, Andres Bonifacio, and ballet connect because they are rebellious, driving, and energetic spirits,” Paul Morales says. Indeed, the experience of seeing these three elements collide and intertwine is wholly disarming. As in a dream, the spectacle of the ballet dancers’ precise and powerful movements enchants the viewer with an exceptional control of the body’s language — a language we know so well but still painfully crave to understand. Accompanied by the familiarity of guitar distortion, drum rudiments, and haunting lyrics, the performance leads us to see history in a brand new light and to interrogate it with listening ears.

“The choreography really illuminated the emotions of the songs,” says Francis Brew. As artists, they were given leeway on how to interpret the writings and the life of Andres Bonifacio after sessions with historians, the whole creative process itself being largely collaborative.

Also featured on the album, Ebe Dancel interprets the struggles of Andres Bonifacio and his wife Gregoria de Jesus with a poignant imaginary letter from Bonifacio to his wife. It is a moving account of death being all too powerful, especially in times of bloodshed and revolution, but hope springing eternal through love. “Sa panahon ngayon na ang daming nagrarant about local music being dead and all, check this out,” Japs Sergio of Peso Movement says.

Opened eyes

“Hopefully, the kids who’ll watch this — who’ll probably watch it for the music — will open their eyes to dance and ballet,” says Francis Brew, “and they’ll say this is the next step we need to make in the arts.”

In [rock] Supremo, it is in the dancers’ motions that one realizes the importance of movement in music. In this age of social media and the quick-and-easy digital record, seeing the need for movement becomes difficult. And it is history, Bonifacio’s story, that sets the stage for the two to weave together. “History is like an onion that you have to keep peeling and peeling to find the truth,” says Paul Morales, “That’s how you get your point-of-view. With [rock] Supremo, we’re taking the steps to understand history by bringing it to the here and now.”

The musicians themselves had an eye-opening experience in writing about the revolutionary’s life and works. “Bonifacio is a guy whom we’ve got all these misconceptions of precisely because he’s a man of action — he was not really a talker or a writer,” Francis Brew says, “and unfortunately, most of history is written down so we think of him as uneducated, impatient, or hot-headed.”

Perhaps, it is only through Bonifacio’s unparalleled example of movement — a movement seen specifically through his and his people’s struggles and revolt — that we can truly believe that there is no other love that can surpass love of country. And at the heart of this performance, that same marriage of words and action lies.

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[rock] Supremo will be shown at the GSIS Auditorium on Sept. 24 and 25 and at the CCP Little Theater on Sept. 20-22 and 27-29. For ticket inquiries, call (02) 551-1003, e-mail info@ballet.ph, or PM facebook.com/balletphilippines for more info.

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Tweet the author @sarhentosilly.