All for the Ballet Philippines’ Cinderella kids

MANILA, Philippines - When Alice Reyes conceptualized and choreographed “Cinderella” for Ballet Philippines in 1981, her one guiding thought was that it was going to be a ballet for children. With comedy and classical dance technique set to glorious Tchaikovsky music, “Cinderella” packages high art into great entertainment for the holidays, but that doesn’t mean that the work behind it was child’s play – far from it!

Rewind to 1981: opening night was frightfully near, the ballet was not yet finished and a typhoon decided to roll into Manila. Yet, in the pitch-black Cultural Center of the Philippines, the Ballet Philippines dancers were at work as usual, guided by Reyes, flashlights and a battery-powered boombox.

“We had a ballet to finish,” recounts Reyes. “So I told the dancers to call up their parents and ask them to bring over their pyjamas and pillows, because we still had a lot of work to do.”
When the curtain finally rose on opening night, it was as if there had never been a storm – just as it should be. As Reyes always says, “When you’re onstage, you have to be good. You can’t hide behind any excuses. You can’t tell the audience, ‘Sorry we’re a bit off, but it’s because the typhoon hit and we couldn’t rehearse, etc etc.’ You simply have to be ready and you have to be good.”
And good they were! One of the most applauded performances in that premiere production was the young Edna Vida’s portrayal of Griselda, one of the stepsisters. Vida, however, hadn’t even planned on being good. “I played the role lazily, almost marking every step,” she recalls. As one of the company’s most prominent/promising dancers at the time, she thought she would be a shoo-in for the role of Cinderella. You can just imagine her indignation when she saw that she was cast as a stepsister – and an ugly one at that!

Despite – or maybe because of – her lack of enthusiasm, her wildly entertaining performance had the audience in stitches each time, and nearly stole the show.

A dilemma faces Katherine Trofeo, one of BP’s current principal dancers who, aside from being cast as the Fairy Godmother, is set to tackle the role of Prunella, the second stepsister. Prunella spends most of her time preening in front of her handheld mirror, and so Trofeo had some difficultly figuring out what could possibly be on the character’s mind.

Reyes set her straight during one rehearsal: there is nothing. Prunella is an airhead, plain and simple. “It’s challenging to act as though there’s nothing (inside my brain) when there really is something,” says Trofeo, then adds with a hearty laugh, “I’m over-analyzing being an airhead!”

The two stepsisters’ dance steps are a different challenge altogether. To create the base for the dancers’ comedic talents, Reyes seamlessly blended technique and plain old horsing around. A stepsister can be seen breezing through a double pirouette one second and with her legs splayed out on the floor the next. This unconventional choreography forces the dancers to be doubly conscious of how their bodies are moving. After all, what sort of ballerina would want her career to be put on hold for months just because she fell on her rump wrong?

Before we go on, let’s get one thing straight: Cinderella’s stepmother is WICKED, not ugly. This distinction is not vanity speaking – it’s literary truth. According to the Brothers Grimm, the stepmother and her daughters are “fair in face, but foul at heart.” For the two ladies alternating as the stepmother Brunhilda – Margie Moran Floirendo and Isabelle Garachon – the former description is a given, while portraying the latter makes the role all the more fun.
It is no secret that Ballet Philippines president Margie loves to dance. Argentinean tango is one of her passions, and she regularly attends dance and fitness classes at the BP Dance School in SM Aura. This is, however, her first venture onstage with the company in her five-year stint as president. In this role, her motherly side is projected as she dotes on the insufferable stepsisters. Before becoming the French ambassador’s wife, Isabelle was a professional can-can dancer. 15 years and a hip replacement later, her dancer’s instincts are intact and are quickly resurfacing. Both ladies crave for extra rehearsal time despite their already busy schedules, and gamely collaborate with Reyes to make the role their own.

This challenge lies most on the two young ladies doing the title role: newly promoted soloist Denise Parungao and junior company member Monica Amanda Gana. “It’s exciting, and terrifying at the same time,” admits Gana. “It’s fun to use your imagination and put yourself into the character, but the challenge is to create your own nuances into the prescribed steps and technique.”

This classical ballet technique is precisely what most concerns Parungao, who recently won the first prize in the Senior Female Category at the 1st CCP National Ballet Competition held earlier this month. Gana similarly placed first in the Junior Category of the 2011 National Music Competition for Young Artists (NAMCYA) Ballet Competition and eighth in the 2012 Asian Grand Prix International Ballet competition in Hong Kong.

Dance steps aside, one of the biggest factors these dancers have to keep in mind is building the habit of musicality. As with Reyes’ other works, the standard for Cinderella was set high. As a choreographer, she knows exactly what she wants and gives the dancers the necessary tools to meet her expectations. Musicality is at the top of her list of requirements, and it’s not difficult to see why it’s of utmost importance.

As Reyes works with the dancers to help them understand how the movements match the music, the music comes to life right before your very eyes. The perfect synchronization of the two creates no less than magic.

Indeed, the true magic of Alice Reyes’ Cinderella is that it pushes one’s youthful, bright-eyed self to the forefront. One can’t help but be filled with childlike wonder, watching a performance with fairy tale characters performing beautiful feats so graceful that they seem like the most natural thing in the world. Then add the participation of a former Miss Universe and current French diplomat, under the direction of the fairy godmother-like Alice Reyes, National Artist for Dance, and what do you get? A treasure of a show, surely.

Cinderella goes on stage at the Tanghalang Nicanor Abelardo (CCP Main Theater) from Nov. 28 to Dec. 7. For full schedule and other details, visit www.ballet.ph  or call 551-1003. Tickets on Ticketworld (891-9999) and at the CCP Box Office (832-3704).