I visited the "manangs" in the production department to catch up on things and then I visited the Admin department and lo and behold... in the room in an animated conversation with Artistic Director Paul Morales and School Director Victor Ursabia were former ballerinas Edna Vida-Froilan and Malou Rivera-Peoples. Nothing has changed really... these two ladies are still as gregarious as ever. So what does one do when one has retired? Reminisce, natch! Edna and I became writers after dancing, while Malou has this huge dance school in Daly City, California. I had visited Malou's dance school a few years back and so it was quite a cinch to ask how her school is doing and who's left of the dancers I know that's still on her teaching staff. Conversation was punctured with peals of laughter and photo ops amidst glasses of red wine on dixie cups.
The tete-a-tete ended as they made their way to the dressing rooms of Monette Victoria (prime minister), Romy Roxas (king) and Gina Katigbak-Garcia (queen) to wish them well on the matinee performance. I went to the back stage area to find my niche so I could take photos in peace. Romy now owns a resort in Puerto Galera while Gina is happily married with kids, one of whom is also taking up dance.
Sleeping Beauty is a well-loved classical ballet of epic proportions. It requires a huge cast as well as a strong technical capability from its dancers. The central figure is Aurora ( Candice Adea, Carissa Adea and Katherine Trofeo), a pricess of the throes of womanhood who falls into a deep slumber on the strength of a curse by the angry Carabosse (Olga Bankova) who was not invited to her christening. She is pre-destined to die at the prick of a spindle but the curse was reversed by Merriweather (Madge Reyes) who blesses her with sleep until awakened by true-love's first kiss. Prince Desire (JM Cordero, Angel Gabriel and a Japanese danseur) is shown a vision of the sleeping princess and falls in love with her. He goes into the Palace and plants a kiss; all this goes on after a dramatic encounter with Carabosse who tries to thwart his plans.
True love wins over evil and Carabosse is vanquished. Everyone wakes up and celebrates the marriage of Aurora to Desire. Dancing and good cheer ensue. The king gives his blessing and the ballet ends.
Coinciding with the last evening of the performance on Sunday was the show on Channel 11 entitled Reel Time. One of the writers had the idea of living with the dancers for a month and capturing on video the life of a dancer in the Philippines. It wasn't the most imaginative show on the tube that I have seen. It's been done before but it does show the audience what great lengths the dancers go through each day to achieve near-perfection.
Each day is another day to try better, to work harder, to accept criticism, to correct mistakes and to strengthen the body and one's techinique even more. One suffers all of this because of one's passion for the art and for his commitment to his career. Been there. Done that. Now what I'd really like to see is dancers just kicking back to relax... That's something dancers almost never get enough of... =)
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