Ballet Manila brings ‘Greatest Hits’ to Malaysia in September
In Lisa Macuja Elizalde’s La Traviata, principal dancers Mark Sumaylo and Abigail Oliveiro portray passionate lovers Alfredo and Violetta.
Photos by MarBi Photography
DanceLink Performing Arts presents Ballet Manila, one of Southeast Asia’s leading ballet companies, as it returns to Malaysia in September for a double-bill showcasing the opera-ballet La Traviata and a mix of classical, modern, neo-classical and contemporary choreographies.
Ballet Manila’s double-bill in Malaysia will showcase the opera-ballet La Traviata and a mix of classical, modern, neo-classical and contemporary choreographies.
Ballet Manila’s Greatest Hits in Malaysia will be held at the Stage 1 Theatre of the Petaling Jaya Performing Arts Centre in Selangor, Malaysia on September 6, 8:30 p.m.; September 7, 3 p.m. and 8:30 p.m.; and September 8, 3 p.m.
The event, which coincides with the 60th year of the diplomatic relationship between the Republic of the Philippines and Malaysia, will have the Philippine Embassy in Kuala Lumpur as a sponsor.
As a celebration of cultures, the production will also showcase Malaysian performing artists and a local choral group. Eighteen dancers from various local ballet schools who passed the auditions held in Kuala Lumpur in early May will be part of the cast.
Artistic director Lisa Macuja Elizalde says Ballet Manila’s Greatest Hits coincides with the 60th year of the diplomatic relationship between the Republic of the Philippines and Malaysia.
Ballet Manila artistic director Lisa Macuja Elizalde said she is excited to collaborate anew with DanceLink particularly because the school is run by two former artists of her company who would later marry – Alfren Salgado who is Filipino and Violet Hong who is Malaysian.
DanceLink first worked with Ballet Manila in 2019 when the latter made its debut in Malaysia in its Tour de Force shows at the Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre. It was the last performance tour of BM before the COVID pandemic.
Macuja Elizalde said it seemed fitting that Ballet Manila will go back to Malaysia for anoter performance series after emerging from the global crisis that shut down, among others, dance schools, ballet companies and performing arts venues.
Ballet Manila’s Greatests Hits, she added, will be another opportunity for audiences in Malaysia to experience the diverse repertoire of the company which is anchored on the Russian Vaganova method.
She is also thrilled that her own choreography of La Traviata, inspired by the tragic opera of Giuseppe Verdi, will be making its Malaysian premiere after its Philippine debut in 2020.
La Traviata will also feature Filipino classical singers – soprano Anna Migallos, baritone Roby Malubay and tenor Nohmer Nival.
In the Don Quixote pas de deux, principal dancer Jasmine Pia Dames is Kitri to company artist Noah Esplana’s Basilio.
The second half of Ballet Manila’s Greatest Hits will be comprised of: Augustus Damian III’s Reconfigured, an all-male modern dance piece highlighting the intensity and power of the company’s danseurs, and Sotto Voce, a piece performed practically in full on pointes; Alexander Gorsky’s Don Quixote Grand Pas de Deux, the wedding dance of Kitri and Basilio from the full-length Russian classic; National Artist for Dance Agnes Locsin’s Sayao sa Pamlang, a suite of dances inspired by the culture of the Philippine South, and Arachnida, a pas de deux about spiders mating; and Tony Fabella’s Dancing to Verdi, focusing on the technical and artistic proficiencies of the dancers.
Principal dancers Shaira Comeros and Joshua Enciso meet the demands of Tony Fabella’s technically challenging Dancing to Verdi.
Macuja-Elizalde, who graduated at the top of her class from the Leningrad Choreographic Insitute in St. Petersburg, was the first non-Russian dancer to be invited to join the centuries-old Kirov Ballet in 1984. As a soloist with the Kirov, she performed the female principal roles in the full-length classics Giselle and Don Quixote.
Principal dancers Romeo Peralta and Jessica Pearl Dames are paired in National Artist for Dance Agnes Locsin’s intriguing Arachnida.
In 1986, she went home to become a Philippine-based classical dancer while also being an international guest artist. In 1995, already recognized as the country’s prima ballerina, she co-founded Ballet Manila together with perennial partner Osias Barroso Jr. and ten other young dancers with the aim of “bringing ballet to the people and people to the ballet.”
Augustus Damian III’s Sotto Voce is danced in full practically on pointes. In photo are, from top, company artists Marinette Franco, Celine Astrologo, Eva Chatal and Shamira Drapete.
The group – which turns 30 in 2025 – has since grown and become the foremost classical ballet company in the Philippines, acclaimed as the “Storytellers on Toes,” with a full schedule that includes an annual performance season, a Christmas series, outreach tours and corporate shows.
National Artist for Dance Agnes Locsin’s Sayao sa Pamlang is a suite of dances inspired by the culture of the Philippine South. In photo is soloist Rissa May Camaclang.
Reconfigured by Augustus Damian III highlights the power of the company’s danseurs, including (from top) principal dancer Romeo Peralta and company artists Anselmo Dictado and John Balagot.
