Ballet Manila in Full Color: Gray days

Ballet Manila has showcased a rich palette of hues in its productions over the years. Now, the company’s true colors are revealed! Gathering photographs from the Ballet Manila Archives, we present the vibrant and the somber, the heavenly to the earthy, in a series of virtual exhibitions – one shade at a time.

Resplendent in a silver gray gown, the Queen Mother (Lisa Macuja Elizalde) in Swan Lake (2017) has just given Prince Siegfried (Mark Sumaylo) a bow for his twenty-first birthday. Wearing finery in a similar color, the prince kisses his mother’s hand in gratitude, before heading for the forest to go hunting. Photo by Erickson Dela Cruz

The shiny accents covering the bodice and sleeves of this gray gown provide just enough sparkle to elevate its typically dull color. Worn by Jennifer Olayvar, it is just one of the creations by designer Auggie Cordero featured in Tony Fabella’s Dalagang Pilipina. The choreography has been described as a fusion of ballet and fashion. Photo by Ocs Alvarez

The Pasha (Gerardo Francisco Jr.) lets a group of hooded men enter his domain, thinking they are priests who are there to pray with him. Little does he suspect that they are actually pirates out to free the women who have been sold off to him. Coincidentally, all of them are wearing gray, from the Pasha’s light ash outfit to the dark robes of the rescue party. Photo by Giselle P. Kasilag

Wearing a voluminous gray dress with white frills and ruffles all over, Mother Simone (Christopher Mohnani) enjoys a light moment with wealthy landowner Thomas (Marcus Tolentino). In the English countryside-set comic ballet, La Fille Mal Gardee (2000), Mother Simone is hoping to match her daughter Lise with Thomas’ awkward son, Alain. Photo by Ocs Alvarez

As the warrior Solor in an excerpt of La Bayadere in BM 21 (2016), Rudy De Dios personifies elegance in an all-gray ensemble. In the story, Solor falls in love with the temple dancer Nikiya and she with him, but he unwittingly betrays her when he is handpicked by the Rajah to marry his daughter Gamzatti. Photo by Kurt Alvarez

Playing the concerned mother to Giselle (Lisa Macuja Elizalde), Eileen Lopez – in a gray housedress topped with an apron – admonishes her daughter not to exert herself too much because of her weak heart. The scene is from the classic Giselle (2012) which sees the heroine die of heartbreak caused by the disloyal Albrecht and then transform into a spirit known as a wili. Photo by Jojo Mamangun

Figures shrouded in gray cast a mysterious aura in Manuel Molina’s Love Beyond Goodbye, which had its world premiere in Ballet, Band & Ballads (2011). Choreographed to the soaring arias of Josh Groban, the contemporary piece celebrates love that is true and immortal as it explores its various aspects. Photo by Ocs Alvarez