Ballet Manila stays on its toes for 4th Dance Day Live!
Principal artists Mark Sumaylo and Abigail Oliveiro take on the adagio from Grand Pas Classique for the first time.
While it has yet to return to its pre-pandemic season programming, Ballet Manila has made sure its dancers will be ready when that eventually happens.
This much was evident when the company presented its fourth Dance Day Live! last May 29, as its artists, both the seasoned professionals and the younger scholars, performed a repertoire of classical and contemporary pieces as they normally would on a regular stage – without the benefit of a second take.
The 40-minute show, like its three forerunners, was streamed live from Ballet Manila’s Studio 1 in its Pasay headquarters and aired on the company’s social media platforms on Facebook, Instagram and Tiktok.
Ballet Manila artistic director Lisa Macuja-Elizalde hosts the fourth edition of Dance Day Live!, a monthly series streamed live from the company’s Studio 1.
Artistic director Lisa Macuja-Elizalde again hosted the Sunday afternoon offering.
Apart from the monthly Dance Day Live!, Ballet Manila has also been taking the stage in Star City, with free shows of Gerardo Francisco Jr.’s Ang Munting Pangarap from Thursday to Sunday.
Macuja-Elizalde has said the live shows, though still limited, are a chance for the dancers to maintain their form in preparation for regular engagements in the future.
“(It is a way) to gain back the stamina, confidence and skills to be able to dance live again one day but it is also a way for us to connect to our wider audiences on a more intimate level,” Macuja-Elizalde has said.
Dance Day Live! has also been an opportunity for dancers to tackle numbers they have not tried before, as with principal artists Abigail and Mark Sumaylo performing the adagio from Grand Pas Classique in the fourth edition of the series.
As a classical company, Ballet Manila this time also featured variations from such ballets as Swan Lake, La Bayadere and Don Quixote.
Project Ballet Futures scholar Juan Angelo De Leon, now 14, performed the Siegfried Variation from Act 3 of Swan Lake. Elyssabeth Apilado danced the 3rd Shade Variation from Act 3 of La Bayadere. From Don Quixote, Marinette Franco performed the Bridesmaid’s Variation while scholar John Stanley Alamer danced the Basilio Variation.
Tangled, a choreography by Gerardo Francisco Jr. which won gold at the Asian Ballet Competition in 2021, brings together scholars Germaine Dawal, John Stanley Alamer and Juan Angelo De Leon.
Having honed its mettle in contemporary fare as well over the years, the company also performed an excerpt from Agnes Locsin’s Sayao sa Pamlang and Augustus Damian III’s all-male choreography, Reconfigured – both considered Ballet Manila staples – as well as the pas de deux from Martin Lawrance’s modern take on Romeo and Juliet using Willy Cruz’s Sana’y Wala Nang Wakas as music.
Principal dancer Jasmine Pia Dames, soloist Shaira Comeros and company artist Jessa Balote formed the trio in the excerpt of Sayao sa Pamlang.
Agnes Locsin’s Sayao sa Pamlang – with principal dancer Jasmine Pia Dames, soloist Shaira Comeros and company artist Jessa Balote – shows its Mindanao inspiration.
Augustus Damian III’s Reconfigured featured an all-male cast led by principal dancers Gerardo Francisco Jr., Romeo Peralta and Mark Sumaylo, soloists John Balagot and Joshua Enciso, with Alvin Dictado, Anselmo Dictado, Jamil Montibon, Jefferson Balute, Noah Esplana, Raymond Salcedo, Rodney Catubay and Sean Pelegrin.
Jessica Pearl Dames and Joshua Enciso reprised the pas de deux from Romeo and Juliet which its British choreographer has described as “beautiful and intriguing.”
Tangled, a choreography by Gerardo Francisco Jr. which won gold at the Asian Ballet Competition in 2021, brought together scholars Germaine Dawal, John Stanley Alamer and Juan Angelo De Leon.
After curtain call, Macuja-Elizalde announced that Ballet Manila will be staging excerpts of her own choreography of Cinderella on June 5 in Star City, a free show for visitors of the popular entertainment complex that reopened last February. The prima ballerina will be reprising her role as the Fairy Godmother from the first ballet in her Princess Trilogy.
Augustus Damian III’s Reconfigured features an all-male cast.
