Ballet Manila is one with the arts community in welcoming the news about the eight newly proclaimed National Artists – including two personalities that it has had the privilege of having creative collaborations with in its company productions.

Dancer, choreographer, director and dance educator Agnes Locsin choreographed two of Ballet Manila’s staples – the Southern Philippine-inspired Sayao sa Pamlang and the provocative Arachnida.

Meanwhile, the late theater stalwart – actor, director and educator Tony Mabesa – had the unique opportunity to star in a ballet presentation when he acted as Russian composer Peter Tchaikovsky in Ballet Manila’s The Swan, The Fairy and The Princess: An All Tchaikovsky Challenge in 2009.

Ballet Manila artistic director Lisa Macuja-Elizalde is heartened to have worked with these prominent artists and for the company’s dancers to have had the chance to learn from them. She expressed excitement over the selection of a fellow dancer to receive the country’s highest artistic award, especially since Locsin is a friend and a long-time colleague.

Locsin’s Sayao sa Pamlang successfully blends distinctive traditional dance elements from Mindanao with the language of contemporary ballet. The stunning choreography consists of five parts: Sagayan, a dance to drive away evil spirits; Pang-alay, a dance to show the beauty and gracefulness of the hands; Kzuduratan, a dance to show a manner of walking; Kuntao, which is a dance of the martial arts; and Singkil, a dance depicting a princess’ escape from the perils of an earthquake. 

Since its premiere, Sayao sa Pamlang has been performed in Russia, the United States, the United Kingdom, Malaysia, Vietnam, and in most of the major cities in the Philippines. Generations of dancers have also performed this piece, including all of the company’s current principal dancers.

In Arachnida, Locsin’s choreographic talent and fertile imagination are simultaneously highlighted. A sensual, if not risqué, pas de deux that always commands attention, this trademark contemporary piece simulates mating spiders and has often been included in Ballet Manila’s Ballet & Ballads road shows and in its special productions.

Acting as the person who became known as “the ballerina’s composer,” Mabesa threaded the stories of the three excerpted classics for which Tchaikovsky created the music and became famous for – Swan Lake, The Nutcracker and Sleeping Beauty. It was a thrill for Mabesa to take on the role as he was a lover of ballet and Russian drama.

The Office of the President, upon the joint recommendation of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) and the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP), officially announced the eight new National Artists by virtue of Proclamation no. 1390 last June 10.

Aside from Locsin and Mabesa who were named National Artists for Dance and Theater, respectively, the following were also cited: Fides Cuyugan-Asensio for Music, Nora Villamayor a.k.a Nora Aunor for Cinema, Ricardo “Ricky” Lee and Gemino Abad for Literature, Marilou Diaz-Abaya for Film and Broadcast Arts, and Salvacion Lim-Higgins for Design (Fashion). The latter two are post-humous awardees like Mabesa.

Interestingly, Macuja-Elizalde and Ballet Manila had also worked with Cuyugan-Asensio in a Music Theater Foundation production in 2008 at the CCP. The prima ballerina served as narrator while the company were guest dancers in Why Flowers Bloom in May, a fantasy opera inspired by a legend for which National Artist for Music Lucrecia Kasilag had created the music and Cuyugan-Asensio the libretto and lyrics.

Most of the newly named National Artists have also guested in Macuja-Elizalde’s tele-radio program, Art 2 Art, on DZRH and RHTV. Agnes Locsin was one of the Davao-based artists featured in the show’s summer special series in 2011. Tony Mabesa guested twice, in 2009 – first, as resource person on National Artist Wilfrido Ma. Guerrero, and second, as an artist who was by then already marking more than fifty years as a theater director.

Fides Cuyugan-Asensio was a guest on Art 2 Art’s second year, in 2008, when the show was still just being aired on radio. Prolific scriptwriter Ricky Lee shared a writing exercise he teaches in his popular workshop series in an episode in 2009 while Gemino Abad talked about the challenges and rewards of being a writer when he guested in 2013.

In 2015, as a Women’s Month special, Art 2 Art also paid tribute to the late filmmaker Marilou Diaz-Abaya, with cinematographer Lee Meily as resource person.