Ballet Philippines pirouettes down memory lane

Ballet Philippines will be presenting an enchanting holiday mixed bill on Saturday, Dec. 20, at the Insular Life Auditorium in Filinvest Corporate City. The performance, a fundraising event of the Zonta Club of Alabang, will showcase the audience favorites from Ballet Philippines’ 39th anniversary season.

Night Creature is one of Alvin Ailey’s most classically choreographed ballets juxtaposed within Duke Ellington’s jazz idiom. Evoking instinctive animal movements, the dance captivates with Ailey’s sexy nocturnal rituals, propelling the movement into a fast-paced climactic catharsis using slow jazz walks, boogie-woogie and ballet arabesques to create prowling patterns and communal configurations.

Suite Filipino takes the audience on a journey through repertory favorites by some of Ballet Philippines’ most popular choreographers: Alden Lugnasin, Agnes Locsin, and Christine Crame Santillan. This trip down memory lane, featuring music by the San Miguel Philharmonic Orchestra, Ryan Cayabyab and Pinikpikan, celebrates the very essence of Ballet Philippines.

As one of the world’s most popular classical story ballets, Coppélia’s sentimental comic story is beloved by ballet audiences the world over. Ballet Philippines will bring the final act of the ballet, a breathtaking celebration, to its Alabang audience. With music by Leo Delibes and choreography by Alan Hineline, Coppélia’s Act III is an enchanting, effervescent family ballet, for audiences of all ages.

The Ballet Philippines Christmas presentation is the second cultural performance that the Zonta Club of Alabang has brought to Southern audiences to date, with the first being Repertory Philippines’ Tuesdays with Morrie in May 2008. Proceeds of the event will benefit the club’s various outreach and community projects for 2009, which include livelihood programs for women and the ongoing MAMA (Mothers for Ampalaya, Malunggay, and Aloe Vera) Nutrition project — an educational campaign to provide underprivileged mothers with vital information on accessible and proper nutrition for their families’ health.

Sponsors for the event include the Belo Medical Group, the Philippine Starball 2009, Bizu Patisserie & Bistro and The Philippine STAR. Cocktails will be served before the 8 p.m. show, courtesy of San Mig Alabang.

Tickets are available at BIZU Alabang Town Center for P950 (orchestra), P850 (loge) and P550 (balcony). For inquiries or reservations, call or SMS 0921-9868955 (Myrna) or 0918-9298876 (Denise), or e-mail info@zonta-alabang.org.

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