The young and the best ballet dance company in the Philippines, treat their guests as they showcase the world premier of Martin Lawrence’s Winding Road and the classical piece of Michael Fokine, Les Sylphydes(Chopiniana). To make the ballet concert longer and more fun to watch the dance company decided to include other repertoire in the program like La Bayadere of Marius Petipa, an excerpt from Vasily Vainonen’s Flames of Paris, Albrecht’s variation from the romantic ballet Giselle, Ali’s variation from the picturesque Le Corsaire, Aramica by Augustus “Bam” Damian III, and the love story of the goddess of hunt, Diana and the hunter, Actaeon.
LA BAYADERE (The Temple Dancer)
Choreography: Marius Pepita
Music: Ludwig Minkus
The tandem of Akari Ida (Gamzatti) and Joshua Enciso (Solor) heat up the stage with their extraordinary energy as they flawlessly performed the relaxing masterpiece. It was no surprise that Joshua would perform such level, but he exceeded the audience expectations, specially during his solos. He did his grand jete smoothly. He was able to sustain himself in air through his high jumps. He did everything with perfection, made us feel that everything was easy, where in fact that was one of the most difficult ballet steps.
FLAMES OF PARIS
Choreography: Vasily Vainonen
Music: Boris Asafyev
Sakaya Ishibashi and Rafael Perez danced together in this repertoire but despite of being together on stage they both showed their own style and technique. They have a good chemistry on stage at the same time they maintained their individuality as required by the piece itself. The performance was relaxing for the audience, but since the choreography requires a lot of jumps and turns it must be really challenging and exhausting for the dancers. However, the energy of the dancers never died during their performance. The precise movements and proper foot position upon landing from their jumps were on point.
ALBRECHT’S VARIATION FROM GISELLE
Choreography: Marius Petipa
Music: Adolphe Adam
Alvin Dictado (Duke of Silesia) played his role well, making sure to hit each jumps and turns correctly. He highlights the weightlessness of being a danseur. Making us feel that he’s not hitting the floor during his performance. Each glides and jumps were all done precise and clean.
ALI’S VARIATION FROM LE CORSAIRE
Choreography: Marius Petipa
Music: Adolphe Adam
Hyuma Kiyosawa as Ali gave a new definition to the role as he highlights strong movements during his performance. This could be the other side of Ali, whenever he’s alone and not with his master Conrad. His take on the character was too strong along with each jump and turn. The discipline in his every moves made the variation evolved according to how he wants to portray the role. The control in every chain of movements and landing were smoothly done.
LES SYLPHYDES (CHOPINIANA)
Choreography: Michael Fokine
Music: Frederic Chopin
The repertoire highlights the weightlessness of ballerinas who played the character of the sylphs or air spirits who were dancing under the moonlight. Everyone looks like floating in the air. The slow and relaxing music matches the grace of each ballerinas. The repertoire only have one danseur, Elpidio Magat (The Poet) along with Joan Emery Sia (Mazurka), Nanami Hasegawa (11th Waltz), Rissa May Camaclang (Prelude), Pia and Pearl Dames (Miseries) and other 16 ballerinas on the Corps De Ballet.
The movements in this piece are slow and focused on intricate pointe work of the ballerinas. Slow movements doesn’t mean that the steps are easy as it requires long pause and pointe. The footworks during the performance requires to be stable and sustained. The blocking and the counting are exquisitely done as they synchronised well all together with their movements. The movements were slow, precise and sharp. The repertoire highlights feminine movements but, Elpidio made himself standout among his muses.
ARAMICA
Choreography: Augustus “Bam” Damian III
Music: Aram Khachaturian
Aramica highlights the vigorous and masculine movements of the danseurs of Ballet Manila. It gives the contrast as it slowly transitioned the stage from relaxing to a more intense and exciting mood, as they were about to introduce the world premiere of Martin Lawrence’s, Winding Road. The fast movements and the sharpness of every jump, turns and other athletic movements incorporated in the performance starts to give the impression that the dance company was about to explode something on stage.
Aramica is a combination of neoclassical and contemporary ballet, which featured a unique style on its blocking and movements which was never seen before in a single repertoire. Some variations may have similarities on other repertoire but the combinations used in Arimica was quite different and unique on its own way.
DIANA ET ACTAEON PAS DE DEUX
Choreography: Marius Petipa
Music: Cesare Pugni
Pia Dames (Diana, goddess of hunt) and Hyuma Kiyosawa (Actaeon) both executed their strengths during the performance. The level of mastery in their style and technique are strong in their very own ways. It’s like two stars that collide on stage during their performance. They both have their own takes on their characters. Both of them showed clarity and flawlessness in their movements, from every jump, chains and other variation of movements they both never let go of their characters. What I love about the two of them was their large movements in some of the non dancing part of the performance. Every split leaps are done in full as if they were flying and they perfectly knows how to sustain their movements.
WINGDING ROAD (THE WORLD PREMIERE)
Choreography: Martin Lawrence
Music: The Beatles
Who would have thought that The Beatles songs would be a great choice of music for a contemporary ballet. The rhythm and counting of each steps and the music was so unpredictable. If you thought that watching ballet is boring and very slow, you’re actually being mistaken. Some people may say that the choreography is too modern for ballet but it’s not. Ballet Manila continues to surprise its viewers as they introduced a different mood and style in the ballet scene not just in the country but to the whole world. The ingenuity of Martin as choreographer match the excellence of the dance company.
The Winding Road, gave the impression that all of the dance style from jazz, ballroom to hip hop may be applicable in ballet stage, of course with the principles and disciplines of ballet as a whole. The choreography bent everything that people knows about ballet. It exceeds and went beyond what people expects about a ballet concert.
Plus the fact that it might be nostalgic for some viewers because of the accuracy on the overall aesthetics of the stage, the dance moves and overall experience of the performers. The colourful retro costumes and hair do were all stunning. It relives memories of that era which is very lovely to revisit. The danseurs of BM were all dashing during the performance. Along with their muses.
The season finale performance of Ballet Manila made almost all of their danseurs and ballerinas standout on stage. No one is left behind, everyone was remarkable in their very own way. Specially the twins, Pia and Pearl Dames who really confused me this time as they both excel and caught our attention during their performance on stage. They both have the equal energy and mastery during their parts. Undoubtedly the danseurs exceeded our expectations as they dance through the songs of The Beatles. Rudy De Dios, Gerardo Francisco, Elpidio Magat, Romeo Peralta, John Balongot, Joshua Enciso, Jamil Montibon, and Sean Pelegrin shared to their audience a unique relationship or chemistry on stage, their brotherhood and the positivity was very prominent on stage. Winding Road tells a lot of story from different angles and perspectives. It’s not focused in just one main character or story, it focuses on the stories of a group as a whole.
Review : JC Salud
Photos : Axl Powehouse Network.
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