Reading time in ballet

Making the leap from page to stage, many ballets have been inspired by beloved titles in literature. This is true for Ballet Manila which has mounted a range of shows based on a wide assortment of published works – fairy tales such as Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, and Pinocchio, the Filipino epics Ibong Adarna and Florante at Laura, as well as international classics like Romeo and Juliet and Don Quixote.

To celebrate National Reading Month, we remember three Ballet Manila productions which not only stemmed from the written word – but also made actual books part and parcel of the story. 

After immersing in tales about knights and maidens, the eccentric Don Quixote (Martin Lawrance, right) dreams of a woman named Dulcinea whom he believes he must rescue. In the ballet Don Quixote (2025), the wannabe knight then urges his trusty squire Sancho Panza (Anselmo Dictado) to make haste as they will embark on a search for his imagined muse. Photo by Giselle P. Kasilag

Knowing that the end is near, a woman (Lisa Macuja Elizalde) longs to hear the lines from a favorite literary work in Augustus “Bam” Damian III’s The Last Poem (2012). In this tender pas de deux, the husband (Rudy De Dios) grants her final wish and reads from a book in her remaining moments. Photo by Ocs Alvarez

In Ballet Manila’s restaging of Tatlong Kuwento ni Lola Basyang (2024), Lola Basyang – the iconic storyteller of Philippine literature – gets a makeover. But even if the traditional baro’t saya has given way to a tie-dyed housedress and sneakers, this cool lola is still perched on her rocking chair and reads stories with such gusto that her grandchildren are endlessly fascinated. Photo by Giselle P. Kasilag