Jose Mari Chan’s music goes to the ballet

The music of Jose Mari Chan is going places these days. I mean that literally. Here, there and everywhere. Well, for one his holiday perennial, Christmas in our Hearts is once again putting everybody in a cheery mood as it emanates from speakers in malls, restaurants, stores, karaoke bars over the radio, online, etc., from everywhere.

Then, late last August, there was Celebration. That was the show held at the Music Center’s Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. The concert featured the music of who else but Jose Mari Chan as performed by the Filipino American Symphony Orchestra, which is popularly referred to as FASO.  So, the audience that evening was treated to one JMC hit after another, all of them expressly arranged for a symphony orchestra. It must have been quite an evening.

And there is more. After the stint with a symphony orchestra in L.A., the famous songs are going next to the East Coast. New York in particular. As a tribute to JMC’s 55 years in the music business, the Philippine Ballet Theater (PBT) will stage a dance celebration. Behind the laudable undertaking are the Philippine Consulate in New York, the Hiraya Foundation, Inc. with partners hip Sentro Rizal and the Cultural Center of the Philippines.

The show is titled En Pointe with Jose Mari Chan. It is made up of new ballets, set to the music composed by JMC. I have a feeling that this is not the first time that songs by Jose Mari Chan were used in ballets. The songs are so famous, I am sure a choreographer or two must have thought of dancing en pointe to those melodies during these past years. What I am sure about is that this is the first time that an entire show, and a ballet at that, was created to showcase the songs.

En Pointe with Jose Mari Chan was performed at the Plaza Hotel on Oct. 17 and at the Kalayaan Hall of the Philippine Consulate in New York. Come Oct. 30, the ballets will once more be staged for one night only at the historic Wilshire Edell Theater in Los Angeles. Then, who knows, maybe the PBT can take the shows to London or Paris and other places.

With this, the Philippine Ballet Theater will give both proud Filipinos and foreign audiences a substantial glimpse and appreciation of world-class performances by Filipinos in an evening of artistry and grace in collaboration with Jose Mari Chan, whose long career and hit compositions enrich Philippine pop music with songs that hold a sentimental and special place in the hearts of Filipinos.

This is so true. Starting with Afterglow in 1967, JMC has continued to create songs that turned into huge hits. These include phenomenal Diamond sellers like Beautiful Girl and Christmas in our Hearts, the legendary carol that now ushers in the Yuletide festivities in the Philippines every year as early as the first day of September.

Other Jose Mari Chan compositions are Can We Just Stop and Talk a While, Refrain, Deep in My Heart, A Love to Last a Lifetime, Please Be Careful with My Heart, Constant Change, My Girl My Woman My Friend, Afraid for Love to Fade, Tell Me Your Name, Can We Start All Over Again, Here and Now, Sing Me Your Song Again Daddy, Is She Thinking About Me, plus other Christmas songs like A Perfect Christmas, A Wish on Christmas Night and Going Home to Christmas.

JMC has written music for the movies, Stardoom; television, BBC Big Beautiful Country; commercial jingles, Love at Thirty Thousand Feet for Philippine Airlines and now dancers are also dancing en pointe to his songs.