A modest proposal for our leading ballet companies / Third rondalla festival

At CCP’s a-press-citation luncheon, a delightfully entertaining program followed President Raul Sunico’s brief speech. Candice Aldea, silver medallist in the 2010 USA International Competition, was a marvelous Kitri very ably partnered by Marc Cordero as Basilio. A semi-finalist in the same USA competition, he and Candice danced the Don Quixote grand pas de deux.

Versatile actor Audie Gemora beautifully rendered a Tagalog song; the Madrigal Singers enthralled the audience with a briskly-sung medley.

At our table were Sunico, Isagani Yambot, Antonio Hila, ballet mistress Ai-Gu Gasina — her Tartar name means moon-flower — and Noordin Jumalon who will restage the Don Quixote of Marius Petip and William Morgan for Ballet Philippines’ presentation at the CCP main theater on Feb. 17 at 8 p.m., Feb. 18 at 3 and 8 p.m., Feb. 19 at 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. Ms. Gasina’s credentials are highly impressive. After studies at the Vaganova Choreographic Institute, she toured SA, Cuba, Europe and Australasia as ballerina, partnered by the celebrated Alexander Godunov, and premiered major roles with the Stanislavsky Ballet Theatre in Moscow. Later, Robert Helpmann and Peggy van Praagh invited her to join the Australian Ballet for which she danced Kitri in Rudolf Nureyev’s Don Quixote among other roles.

Followed teaching at the Australian, Royal Danish, Houston and Hong Kong Ballets. In July of 2010, she mounted Don Quixote for the Australian Ballet Dancers’ Company; currently, she is training Ballet Philippines for the same ballets at which Olivier Ochanine will conduct the PPO.

Candice as Kitri will dance with guest Connor Walsh, 24, principal danseur and rising star of Houston Ballet. Candice, 24, will have as alternates Katherine Trofeo and Carissa Aldea.

Ballet Philippines under artistic director Alexander Morales, Philippine Ballet Theater under artistic director Ronilo Jaynario, Ballet Manila under artistic director Lisa Macuja Elizalde, and Steps Dance Studio under artistic director Sofia Zobel Elizalde jointly performed for the first time at Aliw Theater last Jan. 29.

Obviously, Lisa feels very confident and secure about her company’s highest standards and her own stature as the country’s leading ballerina — which she is, indeed — to have invited the three other ensembles to dance with her own. I am fairly familiar with the first three, but have yet to see a performance of Steps Dance Studio which has garnered high praise.

Unfortunately, I was unable to attend the joint show having been stricken by the flu. In any case, a modest proposal comes to my mind, having heard the First National Orchestra Festival last year wherein five MM orchestras, each with its most select members, played together under the baton of PPO conductor Olivier Ochanine.

The combined ensemble turned out to be excellent, and difficult to match by local standards. Indeed, under Ochanine, it was comparable to orchestras I had heard in Europe and the US.

By the same token, select members of each ballet company can perform jointly as one ensemble in a program under the artistic direction of Lisa. Imagine the best ballerinas and danseurs doing arabesques and jetès together in a grand presentation!

It may not be easy to gather together the best dancers to pirouette on one common stage — there could be conflicting personalities to contend with — but forming that ensemble is possible if Herculean efforts are exerted by the artistic directors, and if individual egos are subordinated or subverted.

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Over 500 artists will gather for the third International Rondalla Festival this month. Billed Cuerdas ng Pagkakaisa (Strings of Unity), it will also have string ensembles from Russia, China, Singapore, Thailand, Mexico, Iran, India, Indonesia and Taiwan, according to Dr. Ramon Santos, project director.

Indigenous groups will participate for the first time; also string experts from Germany, Singapore, Thailand, South Korea and Brazil in the conference component of the festival which will feature concerts, an exhibit, outreach performances, seminars and workshops.

The festival in Tagum City is on Feb. 12-19; in Manila, Feb. 21-24, partnered by UP Diliman.

Tonight at 8, blind pianist Carlos Ibay plays at Alabang’s Insular Life Theater.