Ballet Manila in full color: Think pink

Ballet Manila has showcased a rich palette of hues in its productions over the years. Now, the company’s true colors are revealed! Gathering photographs from the Ballet Manila Archives, we present the vibrant and the somber, the heavenly to the earthy, in a series of virtual exhibitions – one shade at a time. 

Abigail Oliveiro as Gulnara personifies “pretty in pink,” beaming with the love she feels for Conrad in Le Corsaire (2018), not knowing that many twists still await them before they can sail off to their happy ending. Photo by Ian Santos

As the lead ballerina in Tony Fabella’s neoclassical Dancing to Verdi (performed in OPM at OPB in 2003), Lisa Macuja-Elizalde wears a pink dress in a style that highlights movements spanning from showy to dreamy. Photo by Ocs Alvarez

With a pink underskirt and similarly colored ribbons and ruffled lace as trim, the tutu of Jennifer Rose Olayvar comes off as understated yet frilly. It’s the perfect choice for the role of Lise in La Fille Mal Gardee (2008), the farm-set ballet comedy that may be light and frothy but actually packs a wallop in dancing. Photo by Ocs Alvarez 

Personifying the quintessential ballerina, Loraine Gaile Jarlega chooses a pink tutu to dance the Fairy Doll Variation in the 2017 Asian Grand Prix. Before going to Hong Kong for the international competition, she performed the same piece in a preview show called Flight in Manila. Gaile would later emerge as a finalist at the AGP. Photo by Giselle P. Kasilag

Actress Chin Chin Gutierrez makes a special appearance in Ballet Manila’s 2010 restaging of Giselle. As the duchess Bathilde, elegantly clothed in a gown and headdress of brocade in the shade of cerise, she tells the gawking Giselle (Lisa Macuja-Elizalde) that she too is getting married, both not knowing that they are engaged to the same man. Photo by Ocs Alvarez

Nicole Barroso is clad in a tutu in a subtle shade of pink accented with mint green trimmings as she performs as Gulnara, the trusted fried of Medora in the pirate caper, Le Corsaire (2018). Photo by Giselle P. Kasilag

In a move often described as unusual for her character, Mylene Aggabao as Nikiya in La Bayadere (2004) attempts to stab Gamzatti with a knife. But the uncharacteristic and rather drastic step may be explained by the rage Nikiya feels when Gamzatti tells her she is marrying Solor when the latter had already pledged love to her before the sacred flame. Interestingly, Nikiya is wearing a delicate shade of pink that in itself seems to be a contrast to such an intense scene. Photo by Ocs Alvarez

Jammin’, premiering in Heart 2 Heart (2014), featured Manuel Elizalde playing on the trumpet and his uncle Robert Atchison on the violin as a bevy of 16 ballerinas danced around them in tutus of assorted colors and designs. Three of the dancers are shown here, the last one – Honyoung Yang – wearing pink. Also in photo are Marina Bull (next to Honyoung) and Abigail Oliveiro. Photo by Jojo Mamangun

As one of the wicked stepsisters in Lisa Macuja-Elizalde’s Cinderella (2016), Emma Harris dances as gaudily as the dress she is in, one that’s reminiscent of flamingos and abundant with an array of garish details. Photo by Giselle P. Kasilag

In the two-act version of Osias Barroso’s Pinocchio (2015), a storyteller known as the Pink Fairy is introduced. Actress-singer Tippy Dos Santos sings the signature tune, When you Wish Upon a Star, in what else but a gown – and wings! – that befit her character’s name. Photo by Ocs Alvarez