The Pearl Gala

 Paquita & Bloom: Showcasing Ballet Manila's mettle as a dance company

By Earl D.C. Bracamonte 

Ballet Manila formally opened its 30th Year celebration with the Pearl Gala and its worldwide Premier of Pearls, as well as the restaging of full-length features "Paquita" and "Bloom."

The season opened with "Paquita," a ballet in its purest form, restaged by Tatiana Udalenkova as it paid homage to Ballet Manila's Russian Vaganova roots.

First performed by the company as the main feature of its maiden season on Feb 1995, the piece is a celebration of its female corps de ballet. The individual snippet solos show the technical abilities of each ballerina. Watching them perform, one after the other, in flawless execution, was like hearing a well-written "revalida" given by a post-graduate student in a colloquium.

On the other hand, "Bloom," by internationally-acclaimed choreographer Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, is a cutting-edge neo-classical piece that's distinctly Asian in tradition. A showcase of the male corps de ballet, this piece celebrates the company's Ballet Futures Program, where male students were given dance scholarships. The program has since accepted female dancers, as well. Looking at all the male dancers perform was just a testament to how long the company and its outreach has gone.

Ochoa, who also choreographed the current "Frida" show for the Hong Kong Ballet, flew into Manila a few days before the Pearl Gala to fine tune her "Blossom" routine. And the result was hypnotic!

I particularly loved the quartet of ballerinas who spun around the stage, whirling like wind-blown petals and flowers - as if wafting and quivering, frenzied, amidst a colony of bees in an orgiastic pollination of a dance!

In her message halfway through the night's performance, Lisa Macuja-Elizalde celebrated the Gala, albeit with a tinge of sadness; mentioning the passing of former artistic directors Eric Cruz, Sandra Lynn Huang, and Osias Barroso.

Somewhere in the "Bloom" choreography, I, once again, see an imprint of Barroso's iconic tour jetê. While the present company has amassed quite a mettle in their battements, it was the late Barroso who could do the tour jeté in mid air,  effortlessly!

Catch Ballet Manila's season closer, "Don Quixote" on Aug 22, 23, and 24 at the Aliw Theater, featuring prima ballerina Renata Shakirova.