Star returns home to culture shock

Star returns home to culture shock

Karl Wilson, Agence France-Presse/Manila

After 20 years performing on the European stage, leading Filipino
dancer Augustus Damian has returned home to helm the national
ballet -- and a culture shock.

Augustus Damian was principal dancer for some of Germany's
most prestigious ballet companies before quitting to become the
artistic director of Ballet Philippines, but the differences have
left him aghast.

"In Europe dancers are paid reasonably well ... they really
don't have to worry about much at all. Here dancers exist," says
the soft-spoken dancer over coffee in a cafe opposite the
Cultural Centre of the Philippines on Manila Bay where the ballet
performs and rehearses.

"If I have learnt anything since returning it is how much I
took for granted while away.

"You have to remember that when I left Ferdinand Marcos was
still president ... I still have a lot of reassimilating to do,"
he says with a broad smile.

Marcos, whose regime was marked by massive corruption, was
deposed in 1986 following a popular revolt. But successive
presidents have failed to solve the country's problems of huge
poverty and a gaping rich-poor chasm.

That ballet dancers in the Philippines earn a relative
pittance reflects the sorry state of the country's debt ridden
economy where over half the population live on less than two
dollars a day according to the World Bank.

Estimates vary but it is often said that 95 percent of the
country's wealth is held by a couple of dozen large families.

Although the arts are well patronised by the rich it is still
largely a hand-to-mouth existence for most of the performers. The
Ballet Philippines is putting on four shows this year for a
fraction of the budget many overseas companies spend on a single
show.

"I would be embarrassed to say how much these dancers earn but
let's just say it is a day to day struggle just to live," says
the 41-year-old Manila born dancer of his new charges.

"I see them dancing in worn out shoes because they are only
allotted six pairs a year. In Germany I could get six pairs in a
month. The lighting is poor and the dance floor is not the best.

"It is easy to motivate your passion when you don't have to
worry about whether you have enough money for the jeepney (mini-
bus) fare. Here dancers exist."

Damian, who took over the national ballet at the end of last
year, says he had 17 dancers in March. "By the first of April we
had half that many ... most of those who resigned have gone to
Hong Kong to work for Disneyland ... you don't have to figure out
why," he says.

"But I am an optimist. I can bring on some of the dozen or so
apprentices we have. There is no lack of kids wanting to dance.
Our summer school programme is bursting with kids ... many of
them boys.

"You cannot take away the enthusiasm of these young people.
They want to dance but it's not easy to have a passion for
something and simply exist ... there has to be more."

For Damian there was no question about his passion for
dancing, but he was also lucky.

He first started to dance when he was six and by the time he
was 19 Damian was dancing with the Ballet Philippines. His life
changed in the summer of 1984 while dancing at one of the
Ballet's summer workshops.

"The guest teacher was Rosemary Helliwell, a ballerina with
the Stuttgart Ballet," he recalls. "She was impressed with my
dancing and asked if I would be interested in dancing in Europe.
Of course I said yes but thought nothing of it at the time.

Within two weeks of her leaving the Philippines that year she
sent Damian a letter in which she said: "I hope you are learning
German because you have just been engaged as the principal male
dancer with the Kiel State Theatre."

With a one way ticket and US$700 dollars in his pocket Damian
left for what was then West Germany -- a country he had never
seen let alone speak its language. "But at 19 you never think of
these things," he says.

"What amazed me was being given the job in the first place.
The director didn't know me nor had he seen me dance ... it was
all purely on Helliwell's recommendation."

For the next 20 years Damian danced the lead roles in many of
Germany's most distinguished ballet companies to much critical
acclaim. He danced in some of Europe's finest theatres and with
some of Europe's great ballet stars such as Lynne Charles, Sylvie
Guillem, Michael Dennard and Jorg Donne.

"I guess you could say I had it all and I did. But I promised
myself that I would call it a day when I reached 35. That
birthday came and went so I gave myself another five years before
saying goodbye to the stage which I had given so much of my life
to," he says.

Back in Manila, the first question people usually ask Damian
is why he quit the European stage.

"My answer to that question is quite simple ... it was time to
go," he says. "Over the last 20 years I have had a dream run. I
could not have wished for anything better. I left on a high and
no I have absolutely no regrets at all.

"Was it a hard decision to make? No, not really. I had made up
my mind and I was ready. There was no emotion or tears involved.

"I did not want to be one of those people who could not say
goodbye to the stage. I did not want people to whisper 'he should
have retired years ago'."

Damian also admits he had been feeling a bit homesick.

"I had only been home for four weeks in those 20 years. I had
missed so much. No only within the country but also within my own
family," he says.

"I wasn't here when my father died, something which I will
always regret. I missed the marriages and the births."

But as artistic director of Ballet Philippines, Damian faces
perhaps his biggest professional challenge yet.

He knows it won't be an easy task. "But I am an optimist," he
smiles.