‘Rebel’ opens Ballet Manila’s 21st season
Ballet Manila opens its 21st performance season with the return of a modern masterpiece. After its successful world premiere in February, Martin Lawrance’s Rebel:
EDSA 30 goes onstage on Aug. 27 at 8 p.m., and Aug. 28 at 3 p.m. at the Aliw Theater in Pasay City.
“After unveiling Rebel in time for the 30th anniversary of the People Power Revolution, we received numerous requests for a second run since there were too many activities going on that same week,” reveals BM artistic director and prima ballerina Lisa MacujaElizalde.
“The reviews were highly positive and encouraging, thankfully, and more requests kept coming in. Finally, while planning the program for our 21st season, my co- artistic director Osias Barroso and I decided that August would be the perfect time to restage Rebel as our own way of celebrating two important Philippine holidays this month — Ninoy Aquino Day on the 21st and National Heroes Day on the 29th.”
Aside from the impeccable timing, Macuja- Elizalde adds that the new choreography (which is a contemporary take on the classical piece Spartacus) is also an appropriate piece to kick- off an entire season built around the classics.
Under the theme “Revenge of the Classics,” Ballet Manila’s 21st season repertoire will be comprised of some of the world’s most popular and beloved ballets: each given a fresh, new twist in the way they will be presented to a millennial audience. Each production has also been carefully selected to highlight the exceptional abilities of the company’s present crop of dancers — a creative battalion 58- strong, all trained exclusively in the rigors of the formidable Russian technique known as the Vaganova method.
“We feel that Rebel — with its stunning choreography that matches the magnetic original score of Aram Khachaturian and the provocative strains of patriotic songs linked to the memory of People Power — would be an excellent way to launch this very exciting, if very ambitious, new performance season.”
The semi- retired Macuja- Elizalde returns to the stage in a special role as Inang Bayan, who rouses and inspires her suffering children to unite behind a common cause. Also in the principal cast are Ballet Manila artists Rudy de Dios and Mark Sumaylo ( Benigno), Gerardo Francisco and Alfren Salgado (Ferdinand), Katherine Barkman and Dawna Reign Mangahas (Corazon), Tiffany Chiang-Janolo and Abigail Oliveiro (Imelda), Romeo Peralta and Rudolph Capongcol (Juan dela Cruz), Anselmo Dictado (Jose), and Sofia Sangco-Peralta (alternating as Inang Bayan).
Also featured as guest performers are internationally acclaimed musical theater artist Joanna Ampil (as the voice of Inang Bayan) and the ABS- CBN Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Maestro Gerard Salonga. Costume design is by Jeffrey Rogador while set design is by Mio Infante.
Macuja- Elizalde says, “Hopefully, by its own artistic merits, we hope that Rebel could help rekindle the idealism that once inspired us to become an active part of the change we all wanted to see, as a nation and as individuals.”
Tickets to all productions of Ballet Manila’s 21st performance season are now available at TicketWorld Manila at www. ticketworld.com.ph or through 891-9999. Season subscribers can avail of as much as 50 percent discount on regular prices. For inquiries, call 552-7502, SMS 0918-8077148, or email info@balletmanila.com.ph.