World-class ballet companies today require a level of versatility of their dancers unheard-of in previous generations. Not only must you be able to glide, sylphlike, on pointe, you must also be able to twist yourself into a McGregor pretzel, a Graham spiral, and leap like a Taylor stag. But these troupes were all founded as ballet companies. It’s a rare company that starts out in pure experimental modern-dance mode then layers on the Cinderellas and Swan Lakes without skipping a beat. Ballet Philippines, which was born in 1969 as the Alice Reyes Dance Company, is one such rarity. And it has, for the most part, grown its own dancers.
An Asian pioneer
Alice Reyes toured with the renowned Bayanihan Philippine folk dance troupe before studying under legendary American choreographers including Hanya Holm, Bessie Schoenberg, Alwin Nikolais, Murray Louis, and Merce Cunningham. She brought back to the Philippines a passion for telling indigenous stories in the modern idiom, igniting a new form of cultural expression in collaboration with local composers, artists and writers. A modern dance pioneer in Asia, she inspired a new generation of dance-makers who have established their own outposts of the avant-garde both locally and abroad.
Two of Reyes’ most famous works, Amada and Itim Asu, cast new light on historic struggles for the rights of women and against colonial oppression. Itim Asu (Onyx Wolf) recounts the aftermath of the assassination of an 18th century Spanish governor-general, who was known for his uncommonly liberal views. Rumor had it that he was snuffed out by a band of Dominican priests. A fantasy was later spun about his mestiza (mixed-race) widow, who turned into a wolf in the dead of night to take revenge on the priests. Reyes’ gripping dance interpretation of this dark tale, with its layers of subtle political messaging, emerged, remarkably, during the era of martial law in the Philippines, when Ferdinand Marcos reigned as dictator and his profligate wife, Imelda, promoted the arts in the grand new cultural center that housed Reyes’ troupe – apparently oblivious to the subversive nature of the concoctions brewing within.
Reyes’ genius bubbled up not just in dramatic reinterpretations of historic pieces of Filipiniana. Rama Hari, inspired by the Indian epic of The Ramayana, Carmen, Carmina Burana, Cinderella, and other familiar tales received enchanting make-overs.
Folk dance influences are ever-present in Reyes’ work; yet Reyes from the start insisted that her dancers be classical ballet-trained. They got their Graham technique from her and their ballet from Eddie Elejar, who passed on the wisdom of Olga Preobrajenska (of the Russian Imperial Ballet) and Dame Marie Rambert, among others under whom he trained. Over the decades, Reyes attracted international stars including Rudolf Nureyev, Margot Fonteyn, Cynthia Gregory, Fernando Bujones, Ivan Nagy, Julio Bocca, Yoko Morishita and Natalia Makarova to guest with the company.
Programming for today’s audiences
The challenges of supporting a company that can do justice to the classics and also fund risky new work, with frequent new music commissions, in an economy that has been crippled by corruption since the Marcos era, are mind-boggling. Yet this season’s programming, under artistic director Paul Morales, is as diverse and ambitious as ever.
It gave us a Firebird transported to the Philippines of pre-Hispanic times, costumed by artist Mark Higgins, whose imagination refracted the lustre of the Majapahit Empire, India, China and the Silk Road into intricate, zany designs for porcelain princesses and gold monster princes. The season also yielded edgy, mostly abstract new work by Hong Kong-based choreographer Carlo Pacis, Dwight Rodrigazo and Spanish dancer-choreographer David Campos. The latter’s riff on a ballet blanc borrowed from flamenco traditions as well as tribal Asian dances, set, unusually, to the music of Czech avant-garde singer and violinist, Iva Bittová. Other highlights of the season included the twin bill of Crisostomo Ibarra and Simoun, inspired by the novels of national hero Jose Rizal. Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo – Rizal’s barbed critiques of the Spanish administrators and clerics, and the mestizo class of Filipinos who were complicit in the oppression of their own countrymen – fueled a grassroots uprising in the late 19th century. It proved to be the first nationwide revolutionary movement against a colonial power in Asia.