A Philistine at the Ballet Theater

The day before last Sunday I received a phone call from my friend Wildflower inviting me to join her and Prudence to watch a ballet show at the Cultural Center of the Philippines. She told me that I don’t have to worry about the tickets because it was already paid for. So without much trepidation I acquiesced to join them.

I have always considered myself as a “cultured person”. I loosely base this on the fact that I know Architecture because this was my major in college, I know music because I took up piano lessons when I was in grade school to high school, I am a voracious reader and have actually acquired almost 300 books in my collection, I am a patron (ehem) of theater and for the longest time a regular subscriber of the Repertory Philippines. I actually always make it a point to watch the major local theater productions from the likes of the all Filipino gargantuan production of Rama at Sita to the Lea Salonga starrer Miss Saigon. I am also an avid film buff and as early as in my teens have been acquainted with the works of Akira Kurosawa, Stanley Kubrick, and Alfred Hitchcock.

However, as far as dance is concern I am quite unfamiliar with it. Probably because I can not hold my own on the dance floor and I am what you may call a man with two left feet. So last Sunday with mixed feelings of dread and anticipation I went to the Cultural Center of the Philippines. My friends Wildflower and Prudence were supposed to meet me in Makati an hour before the start of the 3pm show. However, I was still to take a bath by 2pm and thereby advised my friends that I am just going to meet them at the venue. Around 3pm I was still aboard the LRT and sent message to my friends to just leave my ticket at the front desk. I was inside the CCP by 3:30 pm and immediately proceeded to the front desk to look for my ticket. I was a bit worried because my ticket was nowhere to be found in the front desk. I however confidently reiterated to the person behind the front desk that my friend left my ticket in the front desk. To my surprise they just gave me a new ticket and have me seated at the orchestra section. The usher told me to just look for my friends during intermission.

According to the programme, “The company celebrates 20 years of Philippine ballet in a repertory of PBT’s well-loved dance pieces re-staged, commissioned and created by world-renowned foreign choreographers, as well as cutting edge contemporary classical, neo-classical and contemporary masterpieces by Filipino former soloists and members here and abroad who have made their mark on the dancing stage.”

The dancers wore colorful costumes and they look like the Vinta’s of Mindanao. I noticed that the dancers jump a lot and they are very graceful. Half an hour have passed and it was already intermission. I immediately looked for my friends and alas they were nowhere to be found. The curtain was raised and Act 2 began, this time the background takes a medieval ambience. The dancers are garbed with coats just like monks when they marched or danced towards the center of the stage. I particularly enjoyed one number where the dancers were holding candles and they were dancing reminiscent of Pandango sa Ilaw. I noticed that there was not a lull during the whole presentation and the pacing of numbers were pretty tight. To my surprise an hour have passed without notice. Although, I cannot remember the dance numbers and they don’t strike me as very distinct I still found the whole experience refreshing and entertaining. Also, the audience in the orchestra section seems to be a very knowledgeable bunch clapping and shouting BRAVO after each dance number. There were even some Caucasian people in the audience. Being a relatively Philistine in this kind of art I just clap whenever they clap but stop short of shouting BRAVO whenever the audience do so. After the show I immediately went to the main lobby to hopefully see my friends. I saw them coming down from the staircase and found out that they were seated at the much cheaper Balcony area.