Philippine dance
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153 MAJOR WORKS KAPINANGAN 1972. Modern ballet in one act. Choreography, Eddie Elejar; music, Lucrecia Kasilag; libretto, Eddie Elejar, based on Jose Lardizabal's Salakot na Ginto- Isang Dularawan (Golden Hat-A Drama-Tableau); costume design, Arturo Cruz; lighting design, Teodoro Hilado; set design, Ray Albano. Performed by the CCP Dance Workshop Company (now Ballet Philip- pines) at the Main Theater (now Tanghalang Nicanor Abelardo), Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP). Cast: Ester Rimpos (Kapinangan),. Manuel Molina (Datu Sumakwel), Romy Go (Gurong-gurong), Eddie Elejar (Datu Puti). The ballet dramatizes one episode on infidelity from the Maragtas epic. It tells of the wife of Datu Sumakwel, Kapinangan, who secretly loves Datu Puti. Instead, she turns to Gurong-gurong, Sumakwel's overseer. In a fit of jealousy, Sumakwel slays Gurong- gurong. Kapinangan chops up her lover's body and buries the pieces in the forest. She is discovered, tried, and condemned to be thrown into the sea. The work highlights involved relationships, which occasion interesting dances, including the dramatic drowning of Kapinangan in a weighted net. The ballet marked the distinct maturing of Ester Rimposasanartistinmoderndance. • B.E.S. Villaruz ANG KASAL (The Wedding). 1982. Ballet cantata in one act. Choreography, Antonio Fabella; music, Igor Stravinsky; libretto, Ramon P. Santos; costume design, Alfonso Guinoo; lighting direction, Monino Duque; set design, Amiel Leonardia. Premiered by the University of the Philippines College of Music Dance Ensemble on 2 Dec 1982 at .the Main Theater (now Tanghalang Nicanor Abelardo), Cultural Center of the Philippines. Cast: Anna Villadolid (Bride), Luther Perez (Groom), Ianne Damian and Jojo Isorena (Parents of the Bride), Leila Florentino and Rey Magnaye (Parents of the Groom). The ballet cantata is adapted from Les Noces, a traditional Russian wedding, which was premiered by the Ballet Russe de Diaghilev on 13 Jun 1923 at Theatre Gaite-Lyrique, Paris. Originally choreographed by Bronislava Nijinska, there are other versions by Jerome Robbins, Lar Lubovitch, and Jiri Kylian. Against a cyclorama are bold pylons of intersect- ing beams before which the chorus stands on tall risers, set off by four grand pianos and a percussion ensemble. These are visible through a gauze curtain 154 across the whole stage and a central boulder-platform. To the right are the bride and her bridesmaids forming a wedge, and to the left are the groom and his friends, forming another wedge. As the chorus sings, the sit- ting bride moves anxiously as though doing her hair. Her maids imitate her, assure, surround and turn her round and round. They all move out on space, still mirroring the bride's anxiety and sustaining her. The bride's mother comes to support her. The maids adorn the bride's arms and hide her. The standing groom and his friends move assertively. The friends wind a long headband around the groom as they go round and round him. His father blesses him and his mother gives him a long necklace. Led by the airborne groom, the men dance further out into space. The parties of the bride and groom gradually cross each other's spaces led by the respective parents. The bride's mother dances a solo of grief. The respective parties return decked with grand ceremonial head- dresses, Bukidnon style, followed by the similarly be- decked bride and groom with their long trains and capes. The gauze curtain opens on all, starkly reveal- ing the singers, musicians, and high beams. The bride and groom flank a priest before whom the parents kneel and link arms, and the bridesmaids and friends lie prostrate. The bride and groom also link hands, blessed by the priest with a long scarf. As they go upstage, the rest dance in jubilation downstage. The bride and groom ascend the boulder-platform. Alone, the bride gradually strips herself of adornments and clothes, as though following a prescribed ritual that she both fears and submits to. When the groom re- turns naked, she is the more afraid, needing his reas- surance. A male solo seems to still everything. Finally, all that remain are the piano hanging from the beams, and the bride and groom standing still and looking at each other. Rosalinda L. Orosa cited Santos' adaptation of Stravinsky's Les Noces to a Philippine setting, as well as Fabella's choreography which "drew from Bukid- non traditions and customs, finding parallels between a Philippine ethnic tribe and Russian peasantry" (Orosa 9 Dec 1982). • B.E.S. Villaruz KAYAW (Headhunt). 1974. Folk dance choreography in two acts. Choreography, Ramon Obusan; music, Kalinga Performers; set design, Dennis Tan; costume design, Ramon Obusan and the ICM Sisters headed by Aurora Zembrano ICM; lighting design, Teodoro Hilado. Premiered by Larawan Dancing Group on 16 Feb 1974 at Cultural Center of the Philippines. Kayaw is a two-act staging of the dances of the Cordilleras, set against a giant stairway to simulate the rice terraces. Act I revolves around the headhunting of the Kalinga, and a courtship-into-wedding scene. Called the Peacocks of the Mountains, the Kalinga men are decked out in plumed headdresses. Everyone listens for the sound and flight of the ominous idaw bird-telling of victory or defeat in a kayaw. The ma- ngayaw enacts the swift attack to decapitate the enemies and to gain honor in one's own tribe, especially for those who aspire for leadership and the title pangat. In the clash of spears and shields, two of their own are left dead, one headless. Lamentation of the women and children pierce the silence, as though to bestir the dead to avenge themselves. A mandadawak (priestess) does the same with a ceremonial china bowl into which she seems to catch hair from the air, believed to be of their ancestors. Hair is planted on the heads of grieving relatives. Donning red (the color for mourn- ing), the women light a fire, as though to burn away the spirits of the dead so they will not bother the living. To the victorious warriors called minger, the maidens give the dangas (headbaskets) while singing the balugay. The warriors themselves are absolved of their bloody act by eating binurbur (rice), and are annointed by the man- dadawak with the blood of a black rooster. In the ulawi, the mingers do the victory dance called takiling where they are crowned with lawi (feathered head- dresses) reserved only for successful headhunters. A warrior chooses a girl, bestowing her a gift as he dances the la-ay. Ngilin is the wedding proper where the bride accepts firewood as proof of matrimonial agreement. Tupaya sounds the gongs for the wed- ding, to which the groom dances like a rooster in a love-play with his bride who balances pots of oil on her head, symbol of a smooth married life. In the tuktuk- yod, they enact a contest on who is to bathe after the wedding. The rest of the maidens balance pots on their heads as they skip and sing on their way to a waterfall, dancing the banga. Act II enacts the budong where the tribes forge a peace pact; otherwise a kayaw could be renewed. To the solitary tune of a nose flute, later joined by mouth flutes, gongs, guitars, violins and voices, a pangat leads a conference among various tribal chieftains. Pakupak is invocation for the meeting of elders. Palpa- liwat boasts of the triumphant exploits of warriors. Tariktik imitates the woodpecker in a dance whose participants are armed with a gong and a blanket. Bendean is an Ibaloy victory dance with the hands and feet directed downwards to the earth. An Isneg duet depicts the character of the most bashful of the north- LA LAMPARA ern tribes. Chun-no of the industrious Bontoc is a rice pounding dance, done while singing. Ulok displays the treasured blankets of the Ifugao. Tajuk is another festival dance of the Kalinga, showing off their finery. With the celebration, the budong is consummated. • B.E.S. Villaruz LA LAMPARA (The Lamp). 1980. Ballet in one act. Scenario and choreography, Basilio; music, Jerry Dadap (Life-force); set and costume design, Salvador Bernal; lighting de- sign, Katsch S.J. Catoy. Premiered by the CCP Dance Company (now Ballet Philippines) on 14 Nov 1980 at the Main Theater (now Tanghalang Nicanor Abelardo), Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP), as commissioned by the CCP for the 1980 Philippine Music Festival. Cast: Mario Esperanza (Rizal); Maricar lA LAMPARA Mario Esperanza dances the role of Jose Rlzal In this dramatic solo under the symbolic lamp In Basilio's La Lampara, 1980. The piece portrays the hero's last moments before his execution. (Steve Vlllaruz Collection) 155 MAJOR WORKS Drilon Oosephine); Cecile Sicangco (Dona Teodora). Restaged by Philippine Ballet Theater on 14 Nov 1991 for the centennial of El Filibusterismo (Subversion), with set and costume design by Arturo Cruz and light- ing design by Eric Cruz. 1991 Cast: Raoul Banzon and Osias Barroso (Rizal); Melanie Motus and Maritoni Rufino (Josephine); Noreen Ostrea and Rosalie Carreon (Dona Teodora). The ballet enacts the last hours of Jose Rizal in his cell in Fort Santiago and uses as central symbol the lamp in which the hero was supposed to have hidden his poem "Mi Ultimo Adios" (The Last Farewell). Sus- pended through most of the ballet, the lamp stands for Rizal's ideals, which helped bring the revolution. He is hoisted twice towards the overhanging lamp in order to identify his own life with the symbol, and to suggest that he is the moth attracted to and burned by the flame. The "explosion" refers to the lamp meant to signal the outbreak of a rebellion in El filibusterismo, the sequel to the Noli me tangere (Touch Me Not). In the novel, the explosion does not happen; the ballet takes the liberty of suggesting that Rizal foresees his own death in that explosion. The one-act ballet opens with Rizallighting a lamp that explodes. After an emotional solo, Rizal is visited by priests asking for his retraction, by several kati- punero (revolutionaries) soliciting his support for the revolution, by his wife Josephine Bracken with whom he dances an intimate pas de deux, and by his mother Dona Teodora and his two sisters. A transition comes when he is fetched by the guardias civiles for his execu- 156
MARIANG MAKILING. Anita Kane produced and choreographed this ballet In 1939. It Is acknowledged as the first dance treatment of the legendary character Marlang Maklllng. (Excelsior 1939, University of the Philippines Archives) tion in Bagumbayan (now Luneta). His fall leads to his dream of a revolutionary encounter. He wakes up. In another brief episode, he is again visited by his discon- solate wife and weeping family-who later take away the lamp supposed to contain his poem "Mi ultimo adios." He is fetched once more by the guards. The fort setting changes to a projected photograph of Rizal' s actual execution. He and his guards mime- walk downstage as the curtain slowly falls. • B.E.S. Villaruz LEGEND OF SARIMANOK 1968. Modern ballet. Choreography, Reynaldo Alejandro and Robert Caballero; music, Bayani Mendoza de Leon; costume design, Arturo Cruz. Pre- miered by Hariraya Dance Company on 5 Nov 1968 at the Rizal Theater. Cast: Maniya Barreda (Sarimanok), Eric Cruz (Prince), Effie Nanas (Enigambara-ulan), Nini Mendoza (Sultana). Accompanied by the Manila Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Oscar Yatco. The story was adapted from the legend of the sarimanok as recounted by A.V.H. Hartendrop, about the love affair of a Muslim prince with the goddess of the moon. This ballet was first tried out in 1965 at University of Santo Tomas, and premiered in 1968 at the Rizal Theater. For the Meralco Theater Production in 1969, Sarimanok was revised and restaged by Re- medios "Totoy" de Oteyza and Lulu Puertollano as part of the "Stars of the Bolshoi Theatre" program. After its 1968 premiere, Anthony Morli noted that the ballet achieved a subtle integration of dancing on pointes and the traditional folk dancing. He also notes Bayani M. de Leon's original ballet music, "with its effective balance of timbres, thematic interest and stylistic evocation of the story's Muslim source and legendary character" (Morli 8 Nov 1968). • R.G. Alejandro and B.E.S. Villaruz LIMANG DIPA (Five Armstretches). 1981. Modern ballet and jazz. Choreography, Antonio Fabella; music, Ryan Cayabyab, Santiago Suarez, Dominador Santiago, and Tito Arevalo; costume and set design, Rupert Acuna; lighting design, Raymond Salvacion. Premiered by Dance Theatre Philippines on 19 Sept 1982 at the Meralco Theater. Cast: Anna Villadolid, Mike Uy, Lisa Macuja. It has been acquired by Philippine Ballet Thea- ter in its regular repertory. Set to six Filipino popular songs as arranged and sung by Cayabyab, the ballet presents: straightforward dancing to "Kay Ganda ng Ating Musika" (How Beautiful is Our Music); a piece for four gossipy girls, full of rushed and vibratory movements in "Tsismis" (Gossip); an introspective solo in "Bakya Mo Neneng" (Your Wooden Clogs, Neneng) that exploits the use of pointe shoes to suggest the bakya; a quick and familiar scene for two dancers, intruded into by another pair, in "Mamang Kutsero" (Mr Rigdriver); a lyrical pas de deux, with four heckling voyeuristic boys in "Mina- mahal, Sinasamba" (Loved and Adored); and a crowded street scene with its surprises, accidents and chance drama, depicted in various locomotive and partnering combinations and styles, in "Limang Dipang Tao" (Throng). The popular work was described by Leonor Orosa-Goquingco as "a piquant fusion of ballet, jazz and modern jazz-often witty, sometimes literal, other times abstract" (Orosa-Goquingco 23 Sept 1981). • B.E.S. Villaruz MARIANG MAKILING 1939. Ballet in two acts. Choreography, Anita Kane; music, Ramon Tapales; costume design, A. Villegas, Badillo, and Asuncion de Castro; set design, Richard Abelardo. Premiered on 22 Nov 1939 at the Ateneo de Manila Auditorium. Cast: Elisa Robles (Mariang Makiling), Milagros Gonzales (Vision), Felipe Librojo (Barrio Hero), Nina Estrada (Barrio Belle), Carlos Cajulao MASKS
(Barrio Fool), Godofredo Angeles (Teniente del Barrio), Emma Aenle (Tindera), Patria Panajon (Old Woman), Lucio Sandoval (Old Man), .Emiliano Pineda, Ricardo Reyes, Vicente Paradela, Alfonso Faustino, Eduardo Robles (Hero's companions). The cast also included dancers of Francisca Reyes-Aquino's UP Folk Song and Dance Troupe, the Torres High School, the Phil- ippine Women's University, and the Arellano High School. Kane and Tapales worked together on this two-act ballet, selecting scenes from Jose Rizal's account of the popular Laguna legend, and producing the first Filipi- no ballet in the classic tradition. Tapales composed a score inspired by the lush forests and mist-covered peaks of Makiling, and used the musikong bumbong (bamboo band musicians). In Act I, the villagers at the foot of Mt Makiling await the legendary vision of Maria Makiling as a sign of a bountiful harvest. The characters include a ven- dor, the belle, the fool, the barrio captain, the local hero and his companions, and an old man and woman, a brass and bamboo band, children, other villagers, and the vision. In Act II, the mountain goddess meets with the barrio hero in the depths of the forest. Intervening, the people propitiate her with a white chicken, and con- vince the hero that earthly love is more reasonable than fantasy. Mariang Makiling retires to her moun- tain top, forever to weep over her unfaithful mortal lover. Her tears form the mists around the peak. The work is a landmark piece because it was the first to use a local legend and to use a compo- sition originally created for ballet. Later choreog- raphers consider this piece as their inspiration as well as the point of departure for their own original ballet choreographies. • A.M. Kane and B.E.S. Villaruz MASKS
1981. Modern ballet in one act. Scenario and choreography, Eddie Elejar, based on the poem "Order for Masks" by Virginia Moreno; music, Ramon P. Santos (Five Pieces for Two Pianos). Premiered by Dance Theatre Philippines in 1981 at the Meralco Thea- ter, and restaged by Philippine Ballet Theater on 14 Nov 1991 at the Tanghalang Nicanor Abelardo, Cultu- ral Center of the Philippines. Costume and set design, Rupert Acuna; lighting design, Raymond Salvacion, 1981, and Eric Cruz, 1991. Cast: Anna Villadolid, 1981, Mylene Saldana and Rosalie Carreon, 1991, as the girl; Mike Uy, 1981 and 1991, as the lover; Raul Sauz, 1981, 157
MAJOR WORKS as the father; Cesar Ongkiko, 1981, and Roberto Policarpio, 1991, as the brother. The one-act ballet sketches the relationships of a girl with three men in her life-her brother, father, and lover. Throughout the ballet, Moreno's poem is read, interspersed with the sections of the music. The girl in white unitards tries out her own dexterity with ba- lances and turns, and finally falls, rocks herself, and mirror mimes with her hand. The brother's jumpy solo is to a stanza. The brother and sister dance playfully (clapping, skipping rope, etc.) to music again. The father's clenched-fist solo is to another stanza. The playful trio which shows the father ca"tching, lifting the daughter and son, is to music. After each relationship is sketched, the girl goes up an appropriate platform with its respective mask. After all these, the girl is left alone. The man in black slides off his ramp as a new stanza is read. He does a sensual, jazzy solo, playing with his stiff hat which he throws at the girl's feet. To silence, he invites her to dance, waltzing, turning and lifting her. Seduction comes after she is divested of her headcap; they dance and end up lying on the floor on their sides. The brother and father leap over them and the girl sits up, protesting their questioning looks and gestures. Toward the end, even the lover leaps around her together with the brother and father. All the men walk away. Alone, the girl slips to the floor gazes at her mirror hand again. The final line, "make me three masks" is heard before the total blackout. • B.E.S. ViUaruz MAYDAY EVE 1971. Modem ballet in one act. Choreography, Felicitas Layag-Radaic; music, Eliseo M. Pajaro; libret- to, Felicitas Layag-Radaic, after Nick Joaquin's "May Day Eve"; costume design, Rose Pah; lighting direc- tion, Monino Duque; set design, Dave Harvey. Pre- miered on 20 Mar 1971 by Dance Theatre Philippines at the Meralco Theater. Cast: Irma Bringas (Agueda), Manuel Molina (Montiya). The one-act, three-scene ballet juxtaposes the Spanish-era Dona Agueda and Don Badoy Montiya, an embittered old couple, with their young selves, Agueda and Badoy. The central images are a candle and a mirror, which reveal one's future husband dur- ing a bewitched midnight rite. Layag-Radaic employs flashbacks, and in the last scene past and present sur- realistically merge, putting frustration and romance side by side. Rosalinda Orosa noted the ballet's successful attempt "to evoke a mood, not necessarily the nostal- 158 gic mood which Joaquin recreates with peerless mas- tery in his fiction, but one that reflected the music by Eliseo Pajaro." • B.E.S. Villaruz A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM 1951. Story, William Shakespeare; choreography, Trudl Dubsky-Zipper; music, Felix Mendelssohn; sce- nario and costume design, Trudl Dubsky-Zipper; set design, Ernest Komeld; slide paintings, Ralps Fabri of New York, Komeld, and Dubsky-Zipper; slide color photos, E.Z. Izon. Premiered on 1 Sept 1951 at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum, commemorating the 32nd anniversary of the Asociacion Musical de Filipinas. Restaged with a new cast on 27 Aug 1953 at the Far Eastern University Auditorium, under the auspices of the Manila Symphony Orchestra. When first done, it marked the return of the Zippers to Manila after an absence of three years since 1947, and was considered the most ambitious dance project at that time and an unprecedented development in dance scenario in the Philippines. The choreography was conceived as an imagina- tive combination of classical ballet and modem dance. Hippolyta, performed by Pacita Madrigal-Warns, and the Fairies of Dawn danced on pointes, while the rest of the cast danced in character shoes or on bare feet. Philippine jusi was used for the costumes of Titania and the fairies. Scenic projection was introduced. Donated from New York were tights (then hardly available locally), pointe shoes, makeup, backdrop paintings, orchestral scores, musical instruments, and other equipment. The foremost ballet schools in Manila agreed to dance together in one production. These were Remedios de Oteyza's Classical Ballet Academy, Anita Kane's School of the Classic Dance, Pacita Madrigal- Warns' Manila Ballet Academy, Benjamin and Remedios Villanueva's YWCA Ballet School, and the ballet dan- cers of the University of the Philippines. They were joined by noted professionals and students. The amateur dancers were transformed into expressive dancers in three months through the skill of the choreographer. The cast was an impressive total of 64 dancers, with a 23-m ember women's choir. The principal parts were performed by Tony Carrion as Theseus, Pacita Madrigal-Warns as Hippolyta, Marcelino Garcia as Lysander, Remedios de Oteyza as Hermia, Roberta Cassell as Helene, Lucio Sandoval as Hermia's father (Egeus), Tony Llacer as Oberon, Trudl Dubsky-Zipper as Titania, Benjamin (Villanueva) Reyes as Puck, and Albert Eisiendl as Bottom. In the 1953 restaging, Gerard A. Burke, an Irish actor for stage, television and radio, was narrator. Ricardo Cassell's Studio Dance Group replaced the defunct Manila Ballet Academy. Jose Velez was Theseus, Ging Severino was Hippolyta, Jack Flores was Lysander, Alcuin Pastrano was Demetrius, Hetty McKay was Hermia, Eddie Elejar was Oberon, and Rally Calvo was Bottom. Alice Reyes used the same Shakespearean story in her own three-scene version also to Mendelssohn, pre- miered on 3 Sept 1976 by the CCP Dance Company (now Ballet Philippines) at the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP). Reyes starts with the quarrel of the Fairy King and Queen, Oberon and Titania, but over a Chinese (Joseph Naftas) rather than an Indian boy. The role of Puck was portrayed by Antonio Fabella, Oberon by Nonoy Froilan, and Titania by Effie Naftas. Edna Vida premiered her own A Midsummer Night's Dream on 16 Mar 1989 for Ballet Philippines at the CCP. It was a one-act ballet in 10 scenes. Instead of starting with Oberon and Titania, Vida opened the ballet with the case of the four lovers being reviewed by the Athenean king and queen Theseus and Hippolyta upon the request of Hermia's father, Egeus. She re- stored the Indian boy in the rivalry between Oberon and Titania, and calls Bottom and his companions the laborers. At the end, when harmony is restored, A MIDSUMMER NIGHTS DREAM. A Chinese boy becomes the object of the contest between warring fairies In this Innovative version of the classic Shakespearean story, choreographed by Allee Reyes for Ballet Philippines In 1976. (Rudy Vldad, Ballet Philippines Collec#on) MIR-1-NISA Oberon and Titania enter the court of Theseus and Hippolyta in the celebration of a triple wedding, and Puck dances into the happy night. Froilan re- prised his role of Oberon while Sofia Zobel danced the role of Titania and Conrad Dy-Liacco the role of Puck. • C.G. Inigo and B.E.S. Villaruz MIR-1-NISA 1969. Modern ballet in three acts. Choreography, Julie Borromeo (Acts I and III) and Felicitas Layag- Radaic (Act II); music, Eliseo M. Pajaro; set design, Johnny Hubilla; costume design, Arturo Cruz and Marcella Lopez; lighting design, Teodoro Hilado; artis- tic direction, Eddie Elejar. Scenario by Julie Borromeo, based on a short story by Jose Garcia Villa, "Mir-i- nisa." Premiered by Dance Theater Philippines (DTP) on 28 Nov 1969 at the Main Theater (now Tanghalang 159 MAJOR WORKS MIR-1-NISA. Based on a short story by Jose Garcia VIlla, Layag- Radalc and Borromeo's Mir-i-nisa Is the first Filipino full-evening ballet perfonned during the Inaugural seoson of the CCP. Shown are Mary Anne Garcia as Mlr-1-nlsa and Antonio Fabella as Achmed In the original 1969 production. (Donee Theater Philippines Collecffon) Download 1.09 Mb. Share with your friends:
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