Heroic swans

Ballet Philippines has likened their artistic endeavors to a struggling journey in an atmosphere of “general low interest and low support for the arts.”

Last week, I watched these “artist-warriors,” as they call themselves because of their “heroic labors.” Ai-Gul Kabirovna Gaisina of the TarTar fame consented to coach the company. Guest danseur Connor Walsh arrived from Houston to be Candice’s leading man in Don Quixote.  Connor attended some of the most prestigious ballet schools in America —  The Harid Conservatory, Houston Ballet’s Ben Stevenson Academy — and The Russian Kirov Ballet Academy. They have achieved such a gentle yet powerful and artistic performance. 

Meet them:

Candice Adea, star ballerina bagged the silver medal at the prestigious 2010 USA International Ballet Competition in Jackson, Mississippi and in the New York International Ballet Competition in 2007. 

Nonoy Froilan, the legendary danseur who once partnered with Natalia Makarova and Yoko Morishita, commented, “When I first saw Candice in Makiling, I knew she was going to be a great ballerina.”

Katherine Trofeo, in her 30s and with a husband and a four-year-old son, still dances very soulfully. She has a flair for communicating exactly how she feels and grasping the personality she represents.

Dancing as Basilio was Emmanuelle Guillermo’s first principal role in Ballet Philippines. At age 12, he was invited by a neighbor to try out for a dance scholarship at Steps, and with nothing better to do, he went. It turned out to be for ballet. Sofia Zobel-Elizalde, Marion Ignacio and Raul Sauz of Steps Dance Studio were his first mentors.

Jean Marc Cordero’s biggest achievement is his being a semi-finalist at the 2010 USA International Ballet Competition, touted as the Olympics of ballet.   Marc watches his diet because it helps his dancing life to feel lighter. Second, he researches to discover other versions of the character in a ballet he’s portraying. Third, he sleeps well.

You’ve got to meet the men and women in the production of Don Quixote by Ballet Philippines:

Paul Alexander Morales, whose first steps in the world of ballet began when he was 16, and he became a scholar of Tita Radaic and Steve Villaruz of Dance Theatre Philippines and the CCP Dance School.

Noordin A. Jumalon was appointed director of Ballet Philippines’ training arm at the Cultural Center of the Philippines Dance School (CCPDS) since 1996. Today he is a coach and ballet master. Noordin has over 40 years of dancing experience in mime, acting, dance styles, and maniere restaging of Les Sylphides, The Nutcracker, Giselle and Sleeping Beauty spending 14-hour workdays dancing.

Victor Ursabia is a ballet master and Candice Adea’s coach. He has worked with Atlanta Ballet School on a scholarship grant from Maniya Barredo Center de Dance du Marais in Paris, France and studied at Boston Ballet School. As a student he demands from himself precision. 

“My advice when I coach is technique, technique, technique but once you step on stage, it is performance,” Victor says. “Dance with all your heart. My true achievement is when I see the dancers become who they want to be.”

Markke Marasigan just recently became Ballet Philippines executive director and is now in a challenging chapter in her life. The world of performing arts is so different from how things are run in the corporate arena she worked in before. To her credit are successful runs of Crisostomo Ibarra and Peter Pan.

Alden Lugnasin’s dancers brought to life a wide range of characters. A guest choreographer-in-residence for the International Dance Festival at Connecticut College, USA, he was the Philippines’ representative in the Asia Pacific Performance Exchange Artist Program (APPEX) administered by the University of California, Los Angeles-Center for the Intercultural Performance, held in Bali, Indonesia in August 2004. In December 2004, Alden choreographed his first full-length modern ballet, Peter Pan’s Neverneverland. He was recently sponsored by the Asia-Europe Foundation in a collaborative project entitled Point To Point with visual artist Anne Rochette in Paris, France, and Warsaw, Poland.