Ballet Philippines brings Filipino touch to Jakarta

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.