Ballet Philippines brings Filipino touch to Jakarta

By Yenni Kwok

JAKARTA (JP): Does ballet, often considered a well-heeled, bourgeois art from the established West, have a place in a developing Southeast Asian country?

Ask the dancers from Ballet Philippines, and they'll say, "Of course".

However, instead of simply absorbing conventional ballet dictates, they choose to create their own style: a blend of classical ballet, contemporary dance and Filipino traditions.

Their three-night performance in Gedung Kesenian Jakarta last weekend gave the Jakartan audience a taste of their repertoire. This was their fourth visit here but the last one was nine years ago.

They performed a total of 12 works divided into two sets of programs; one was for the first two nights, the second for the last night. The themes were diverse, ranging from environmental issues, tribal Filipino culture, women to Christianity.

Although Ballet Philippines mostly performed unconventional and contemporary pieces, they did not shun classical styles. Neo classical Bach Concerto and Opus 25 were interpretations of Bach's Piano Concerto No. 5 in f minor and Sergei Prokofiev's Opus 25.

In these pieces, the dancers performed gracefully to the classical music, relying mostly on the conventional ballet techniques. Here, Ballet Philippines seemed to be saying, "Hey, look. We can perform classical-style ballet, too!"

Nevertheless, those two pieces were too tame, especially compared to the more energetic and provocative contemporary ones. Indeed, in its 27 years of existence, this professional dance company has produced more than 200 works. The most prominent ones are Filipino works, integrating Western technique into Filipino movement, design and ideas.

Women

Their strongest, most interesting pieces were those about women.

Je, Tu, Elle (I, You, She) depicted the dark and dangerous side of women. Five female dancers, clad in black body suits, stared at the audience with no fear. They performed seductive and sensuous movements, their faces blank of any smiles. Their hair was down, reinforcing the unrestrained sexuality.

Another piece about women, Tatlong Babae (Three Women), also shared the same hostile tone. Shown in the second program, Tatlong Babae featured three characters, Black Widow (Gaye Galiluyo), Ennui (Cecile Sicangco) and Taong Talangka (Camille Ordinario). Originally, these characters were from Agnes Locsin's different pieces. Locsin combined the three pieces to create one movement about women.

Forget about any female bonding, however. Like Je, Tu, Elle, the women in Tatlong Babae were not friendly to each other. The three women, who represented different characteristics of women, cast suspicious and glaring looks at each other.

Black Widow was the symbol of a sensuous, seductive woman. Also dancing in Je, Tu, Elle, the portrayal of a seductive, rather dangerous woman seemed to be the specialization of Galiluyo, who was easily the star of the night.

She deserved to be . Her expressions were strong. Moreover, Black Widow's difficult techniques really showed Galiluyo's talents. The most impressive movement was when she had to move sideways quickly on the points of her ballet shoes.

On the other hand, the company's artistic director, Sicangco, had to take a back seat performing the character Ennui. Ennui's movements were slow and did not demand a lot of elaborate dance techniques.

Taong Talangka, which means "Crab Person", is a piece inspired by a crab's movements. This dance was an excerpt of a longer piece called Taong Talangka. Ordinario also performed in the longer piece, which was shown in the first program. In both performances, accompanied by twinging sounds of the tribal music, Ontario had to do a lot of energetic and fast movements.

Besides women, another recurring theme was the environment. In Swimming the Pasig, the dancers, dressed in swimming suits, portrayed the despair and depressing mood over the polluted Pasig River that cuts through Manila.

Pagdiriwang (Celebration), on the other hand, had a more positive tone. In this piece, human beings worshiped a woman, who is a nature enchantress, as the force of nature won over destruction by some men. This piece was the end of a full-length ballet called Encantada (Enchantress).

As the cultural ambassador of their country, Ballet Philippines also brought some distinctively Filipino culture, as portrayed by Igorot and Babalyan. Igorot was a combination of the classical ballet and the ritual dances of the Igorot tribe of the Philippines. Babalyan, which had won a couple Japanese international competition awards, was inspired by a ritual among a tribe in Southern Philippines. The priestess who led the thanksgiving celebration is called Babalyan.

And, what can be more distinctively Filipino than possessing a strong faith in Christianity? Te Deum (The Mass) depicted the Filipinos' passion in religion and God.

Choreographed by Denisa Reyes, Te Deum consisted of four parts, inspired by a verse of the Bible and a Catholic traditional prayer.

The third part, which was based on a verse in Habakkuk, was inspired by and choreographed during the People's Revolution in 1986.

An overly religious feeling was inevitable. With the crucifix image, made of stage lights, in the background, and the religious music, it was as if we were no longer watching a ballet performance in an art theater. Instead, it seemed like we were the audience at a Christmas play on a church stage.

Therein lies the difference. While the West usually separates religion and art, the East is not afraid to integrate both.