Choreography in Focus: Velvet Wings by David Campos Cantero
Butterflies inspired Spanish choreographer David Campos Cantero to create Velvet Wings for Ballet Manila in 1998. On a working visit to the Philippines, the homeland of his dancer-wife Irene Sabas, he observed butterflies busily flying from one flower to the next in the garden of his environmentalist mother-in-law Luz Sabas.
As described by its choreographer, Velvet Wings is “youthful, abstract, modern and light but dramatic.” Photo by Jojo Mamangun
Captivated by their playful movements and the lighthearted feeling they evoked, Campos thought of creating a choreography based on the colorful insects. He subsequently bought a book on butterflies, then fleshed out his concept for a lyrical ballet piece focusing on the cycle that takes place endlessly in nature.
For the music, he chose the music of Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto whose work he admires. Campos set his choreography to Sakamoto’s six themes for the piano, violin and cello.
Campos describes Velvet Wings as “youthful, abstract, modern and light but dramatic.” With an idyllic setting, it depicts the beauty and fragility of butterflies whose movements are delicately echoed by the dancers.
He sums up Velvet Wings this way: “Nature manifests harmony and balance, when full of lively winged creatures that happily and tirelessly flutter around, only to rest but a moment as they spring lightly on to a leaf, or to a flower, or to a single blade of grass.
Butterflies inspired the creation of Velvet Wings. Photo by Jojo Mamangun
“Butterflies in their fragile and colorful silent flight perhaps make their final cry against humanity’s careless ways, but small, insignificant and voiceless, they are left unheeded.”
The choreography conveys how the butterflies’ existence is threatened by environmental degradation. But as is nature’s way, the cycle of death and rebirth persists. “Even with all that we are doing to the earth, this fragile insect will survive,” Campos asserts.
David Campos Cantero’s Velvet Wings depicts nature’s cycle of death and rebirth. Photo by Jojo Mamangun
Velvet Wings had its world premiere in Petrushka and Other Ballets which was staged on September 11, 12 and 13, 1998 at the GSIS Theater. Petrushka, incidentally, is another Campos choreography for Ballet Manila that had debuted the year before.
In the program notes for Petrushka and Other Ballets, Ballet Manila artistic director Eric V. Cruz said of Velvet Wings: “This 25-minute piece took the choreographer only 11 days to create with such fantastic results. Proof again that the company is maturing.”