Olé! Don Quixote fun facts: #2 - Don Quixote doesn’t dance

As Ballet Manila prepares to bring back Don Quixote in May – the second offering in its 25th performance season – we share assorted trivia about the beloved classic, tidbits from the company’s past performances and artistic director Lisa Macuja-Elizalde’s long history with it, along with select photographs from the Ballet Manila Archives. The series is a celebration of this happy ballet, a showcase for the bravura Spanish-inspired style featuring show-stopping technical feats by the ballerina and her danseur in the lead roles of Kitri and Basilio.

Having read many books on chivalry, Don Quixote (seen here in Ballet Manila’s 2003 production) thinks of himself as a knight and sets out with Sancho Panza to do good deeds. Photo by Ocs Alvarez from the Ballet Manila Archives collection

Don Quixote doesn’t dance. Don Quixote, the ballet, carries the title of the literary work it was inspired by – the epic novel of Spanish author Miguel de Cervantes dating back to the 1600s. Despite being the titular character, however, Don Quixote on stage is an incidental character who doesn’t dance but does a lot of mime. In the ballet’s story, he travels with his trusty squire, Sancho Panza, and along the way meets the innkeeper Lorenzo’s daughter, Kitri, whom he mistakes for his ideal woman, Dulcinea.

Top photo: In one of their performances of Don Quixote in Russia in the 1990s, Osias Barroso and Lisa Macuja as Basilio and Kitri encounter Don Quixote, a man in pursuit of chivalrous goals. Photo from the Ballet Manila Archives collection