Ballet Manila joins Sayaw Pinoy virtual dance celebration
Walang Hanggang Paalam, Ballet Manila’s dance film reaffirming hope and love, is part of Sayaw Pinoy Goes Virtual.
Ballet Manila showed solidarity with the Dance community as it joined the first ever virtual presentation of Sayaw Pinoy, the annual flagship program of the National Committee on Dance of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA).
The company contributed its dance film, Walang Hanggang Paalam, a reaffirmation of hope through its twin themes of celebrating love and the essential value of the arts. Choreographed by principal dancer and resident choreographer Gerardo Francisco and helmed by Jojit Lorenzo, the black and white film served to kick off Ballet Manila’s virtual season dubbed Silver Linings last September.
“Dance is thanksgiving. Dance is caring. Dance is hope,” Ballet Manila artistic director Lisa Macuja-Elizalde intones in Walang Hanggang Paalam.
In the film’s introduction, Ballet Manila artistic director Lisa Macuja-Elizalde muses, “Sa gitna ng pangamba, tuloy ang sayaw ng buhay...” (In the midst of fear, the dance of life continues...). It then leads to a montage of couples and individual dancers moving in tender cadence to the poignant lyrics of the Joey Ayala composition, Walang Hanggang Paalam, that speaks of a love so great even physical distance cannot put an end to it.
Sayaw Pinoy traditionally draws big audiences through its live performances held in multiple venues. In February 2020, the dance festival even went nationwide in scale with performances mounted in various parts of the country in line with National Arts Month.
This year however, due to the pandemic, organizers had to adapt, coming up with Sayaw Pinoy Goes Virtual, a first for the festival.
NCCA aired the two-part program of Sayaw Pinoy, with the theme “Weaving our diverse cultures through Dance,” on its Facebook page on April 24 and 25. It featured over 30 dance groups from the Philippines and from other countries which, in keeping with past festivals, represented various dance forms such as folk, traditional, contemporary, neoclassical, ballet, modern and hiphop.
Sayaw Pinoy Goes Virtual marks three events simultaneously – Earth Day (April 22), National Dance Week (April 22 to 29) and International Dance Day (April 29).
Shirley Halili-Cruz, overall Sayaw Pinoy festival director, urges the Dance community “to continue what we all love doing.”
Shirley Halili-Cruz, chairman of NCCA’s National Committee on Dance and overall festival director, enjoined the Dance community “to continue what we all love doing” despite the pandemic, in a message delivered in Sayaw Pinoy.
She also pledged the Dance Committee’s commitment to organize activities aimed at bringing the community together, including festivals, concerts and conferences – even if these can only be done online for the meantime.
Excerpts from the International Dance Day message of Stuttgart Ballet’s Friedemann Vogel were also read at the beginning of Sayaw Pinoy. The International Theatre Institute, the organization behind IDD, had selected Vogel to write the message marking this year’s celebration.
Since the inception of Sayaw Pinoy in 2009, the festival has counted different local government units, schools, private institutions and commercial enterprises in various parts of the country as integral components of the festival.
Sayaw Pinoy Goes Virtual may be viewed through the links below, with Ballet Manila’s Walang Hanggang Paalam featured in Part 1 of the program:
Part 1 – https://www.facebook.com/NCCAOfficial/videos/154262049876973
Part 2 – https://www.facebook.com/NCCAOfficial/videos/159493202765745
For the full story on Walang Hanggang Paalam, click on the link