Dramatic exits: Ballet Manila and the art of dying on stage

Death scenes in ballet can be complicated, and the moments leading up to a heartbreaking end perhaps the most difficult to accomplish. This is true particularly in the classics where the most tragic of circumstance has to be conveyed in a series of refined movements. Even as the characters they portray may be in the throes of demise, the challenge for the dancers is to perform with an energy that contrasts with what they have to emote. In all its complexities, here’s how Ballet Manila has achieved those dramatic exits. 

In Rudy De Dios’ Carmina Burana (2020), King Solom (Romeo Peralta) relentlessly tries to win back his people from the dark side after the otherworldly Atheos lures them to his fold. Solom engages in a furious battle with Atheos but is killed in the process. As the mourners lift the king’s mortal remains, his “soul” (right) wanders off, freed from earthly concerns. Photo by Giselle P. Kasilag

Solor (Maxim Chashchegorov) swears eternal love to the temple dancer Nikiya (Lisa Macuja-Elizalde) before the sacred flame in La Bayadere (2004). But unknown to her, he is already committed to Gamzatti. Upon learning of Nikiya, Gamzatti plots with her father the Rajah to get Nikiya bitten by a snake when she dances at the festivities celebrating her engagement to Solor. Though an antidote is offered to Nikiya, she opts to die rather than face life without the remorseful Solor. Photo by Ocs Alvarez

It’s not quite death, but it might as well be. A furious Maleficent (Abigail Oliveiro) delivers on her curse to put Princess Aurora (Jasmine Pia Dames) into an eternal slumber in Lisa Macuja-Elizalde’s Sleeping Beauty (2020). But Prince Philip will save the day and revive her with true love’s kiss. Photo by Giselle P. Kasilag 

In the ballet classic Giselle (2019), the frail-hearted Giselle (Joan Emery Sia) is unable to withstand Albrecht’s betrayal and goes mad before collapsing in her mother’s arms. The groundskeeper Hilarion (Mark Sumaylo) cries in misery as the woman he loves passes on, later to transform into a spirit known as a wili. Photo by Giselle P. Kasilag

Bathed in the surreal glow of the moon, Odette (Katherine Barkman) and Prince Siegfried (Elpidio Magat) flee, with the enchanted swan maidens below appearing to send them off in Swan Lake (2019). After realizing the sorcerer Von Rothbart has tricked them, making Siegfried fall for the evil double Odile, the couple choose to pursue their happy ending... in the afterlife. Photo by Ocs Alvarez 

Carmen (Lisa Macuja-Elizalde), the passionate protagonist of Eric V. Cruz’s Carmen (2003), seduces Don Jose (Osias Barroso) but eventually casts him aside in favor of a bullfighter who has caught her eye. Thrown into a fit of rage and jealousy, the obsessed Don Jose grabs a dagger and stabs Carmen, a shockingly violent death for one who has lived and loved to the fullest. Photo by Ocs Alvarez

A devastated Romeo (Rudy De Dios) crumples in tears when his best friend Mercutio (Gerardo Francisco) dies following a duel with Tybalt, Juliet’s cousin, in Sergey Vikulov’s Romeo and Juliet (2004). Even though he has fallen in love with Juliet, Romeo vows revenge and kills Tybalt, further widening the rift between their families. Photo by Ocs Alvarez

Inspired by real-life events leading to the People Power Revolution, with the myth of Spartacus mixed in, Martin Lawrance’s Rebel (2016) unfolds like a history lesson. The opposition leader Benigno (Mark Sumaylo) is felled by an assassin’s bullet, and collapses into the arms of Juan, symbolizing the Filipino Everyman to whom he had dedicated his life. His death eventually fuels the protest of people hungry for freedom. Photo by Ocs Alvarez 

An agonized Lady Capulet (Lisa Macuja-Elizalde) grieves over the lifeless body of Tybalt (Arnulfo Andrade) as Lord Capulet (Nonoy Froilan) looks on in a scene from Paul Vasterling’s Romeo and Juliet (2015). Tybalt, Juliet’s cousin, has been slain by Romeo — a member of the opposing clan, the Montagues — following an altercation where Romeo’s friend Mercutio is killed. The ultimate misfortune involving the lovers Romeo and Juliet is still to follow. Photo by Ocs Alvarez 

In Giselle (2019), Hilarion (Joshua Enciso) goes to Giselle’s grave to mourn her, but, having wandered into the territory of the wilis, he faces a severe consequence. The merciless Myrtha, queen of the wilis, exacts revenge on the trespasser and directs the maiden spirits to force Hilarion to dance until he dies. Photo by Erickson Dela Cruz

Heartbreak caps the complicated romance of Violetta (Abigail Oliveiro) and Alfredo (Mark Sumaylo) in Lisa Macuja-Elizalde’s interpretation of La Traviata (2020). Although willing to choose love over riches, Violetta lets Alfredo go upon his father’s pleas. Without telling him the real reason for her decision, she incurs his wrath. When he finally learns the truth, he goes to her to make amends but it is too late as she has fallen ill. Alfredo weeps as he cradles Violetta and life is snuffed out of her like a flame. Photo by Giselle P. Kasilag 

The Shakesperean romantic tragedy that is Romeo and Juliet finds an emotion-fraught ballet interpretation by Paul Vasterling in 2015. Planning to evade their warring clans by escaping with Romeo, Juliet (Katherine Barkman) agrees to drink a sleeping potion. But she awakens to find Romeo (Rudy De Dios) lifeless after he had earlier found her and assumed she was dead. The anguished Juliet then decides to take her own life too. Photo by Ocs Alvarez

After taking a bite of the poisoned apple, the heroine in Lisa Macuja-Elizalde’s Snow White (Joan Emery Sia), restaged in 2019, falls into a sleeping death. Laid on a flower-bedecked resting place in the middle of a forest, the huntsman and his family mourn the loss of the young girl. Fortunately, the prince (Elpidio Magat) comes along and gives the princess a life-saving kiss. Photo by Giselle P. Kasilag 

On the brink of death, a woman (Lisa Macuja-Elizalde) has one final wish to ask of her partner (Rudy De Dios). As the title of Augustus “Bam” Damian III’s choreography indicates, it is to read her The Last Poem (2012). The dying woman somehow still manages to also have one last dance with her beloved. Photo by Ocs Alvarez