By Joseph Cortes
Who doesn’t love a good read? A beautiful story, any way it is told, engages your attention in such a way that it becomes part of your memory.
For its 20th performance season, Ballet Manila (BM) is presenting a series of ballets that are based on popular tales.
Being performed this weekend is Osias Barroso’s successful staging of Pinocchio. This popular story of the marionette that dreams of becoming a child has been a holiday staple for the ballet company, an alternative to the more traditional Nutcracker. It has wowed young audience members with its lovable characters and theatrical sleight-of-hand, and we can expect no less from its production this season. It will run for two weekends until December 6.
Before Pinocchio, Ballet Manila had already staged two other ballets, its original production of Tatlong Kuwento ni Lola Basyang, which opened the season, and Romeo and Juliet.
The Lola Basyang ballet is based on the popular short stories of Severino Reyes. Fact is, this production proved to be such a crowd-pleaser when it was first performed in 2008 that a sequel, Tatlo Pang Kuwento ni Lola Basyang, was produced in 2013.
In the eight years since Lola Basyang was first staged, it has been in the company’s repertory, a sure hit among young and old alike. The combination of romance, fantasy and comedy, as highlighted in the three ballets that make up the show, has proven to be a winning combination.
This was the fourth time the production was staged, with most of the roles having already been taken over by a new set of dancers. Except for one performer, none of them were the originators of their roles. Despite this, there was no sense that they were first-timers. Everything was in place; the performance was like clockwork, eliciting the same frenzied reaction from the crowd as it had the first time around.
While Ballet Manila has presented Romeo and Juliet countless of times, it premiered the staging by Paul Vasterling this season. First performed in 2004 by Nashville Ballet, this version proved to be more dynamic than other productions we’ve seen.
For one, the character of Romeo is at the center of this staging, and you can feel it in the masculine choreography that has a breathless quality to it. Vasterling’s male characters have plenty of swagger and bravado that you won’t be surprised if you find them engaged in a swordfight at any opportunity.
Indeed, this is how the ballet opens.
The Capulets and the Montagues argue and draw swords over a simple altercation. (And you don’t have dancers counting numbers as they brandish their swords here. The action sequences have a truly theatrical feel about them.) Had it not been for the intercession of the Prince of Verona, blood would have already been spilled this early in the show.
Juliet doesn’t come into her own until later on in Act 3. And as in most productions of Romeo, it is the dramatic center of the ballet.
And surprisingly, Lord and Lady Capulet aren’t the ciphers that they are in most ballets on this story. Here, they actually danced, and not just mimed their roles. This wasn’t surprising considering that these two roles were taken by BM Artistic Director Lisa Macuja-Elizalde and ballet icon Nonoy Friolan, who were also paired as the star-crossed lovers many years ago. Macuja-Elizalde, who formally bid adieu the Ballet Manila stage last season, was back dancing in the Capulets’ ball in Act 1. Younger members in the audience were lucky to see two of the country’s legendary dancers performing together again after so many years. Their long experience onstage gave their performances dramatic authenticity, particularly in the scenes before Juliet’s death.
Ballet Manila has always had the luxury of casting multiple players for its shows. For “Romeo,” there were three. This is surely proof of the company’s pool of talents. We were lucky to see the Romeo and Juliet of Brian Williamson and Abigail Oliveiro, along with Elpidio Magat as Mercutio and Arnulfo Andrade as Tybalt.
Vasterling’s modern touches give the choreography of the male dancers an edge; most of the time, Romeo and his friends Mercutio and Benvolio (Rudolph Capongcol) are rushing from one scene to the next as they hop, leap and dart across the stage. In fact, they have Act 1 pretty much to themselves.
Williamson was a commanding presence onstage, not just because he was a head taller than most dancers, but because he was gracefully athletic as Romeo. Magat was his trusty partner, agile and quick, although he lacked some of Mercutio’s exuberance in his death scene. Oliveiro was marvelous as Juliet. Although she struggled in her emotional scenes with Lord Capulet, she acquitted herself in her gripping solo in Act 3.
There is much to see and enjoy in Vasterling’s Romeo and Juliet, and it would be a delight if Ballet Manila would restage it sometime in the future. It deserves to be enjoyed again for its fresh take on this classic love story.