DANCE Review: The Magic of Ballet and storytelling in LOLA BASYANG

 The classic children’s story of Severino Reyes set to dance to watch Ballet Manila’s Tatlong Kuwento ni LOLA
BASYANG.
 Tatlong Kuwento ni Lola Basyang uses three stories : Labindalawang Masasayang Prinsesa, Ang Palasyo ng mga
Duwende , and Anting-Anting.
 It is a glimpse of Ballet artistic director Lisa Macuja-Elizalde’s mission of bringing ballet to the people.
 Filipinizing ballet, after all would make more relatable and engaging for broader local audience beyond cultural
elite who are usual patrons of most traditional ballet performances.
 Luz Fernandez enacting LOLA BASYANG played the iconic grandmother-storyteller role in the 80s TV
children’s fantasy ORA ENGKANTADA.
 She has aged but still the wit and charm of a doting grandmother whose passion is to entertain grandkids with
stories that are filled wuth learning and values.
 Missy Elizalde played Ate Missy with much ebullience and charm.
 She sat with three other children at Lola Basyang’s feet listening to her story which was spoken in the vernacular.
 Ate Missy served as the link between the storyteller and the dance scenes.
 The first dance was Labindalawang Masayang Prinsesa featured fairly simple dancing using classical ballet with
traditional adagios and codas for the princesses’ and princes’ parts.
 There was also a comic variation in the scenes with the princesses’ father, Hari (played by Macus Tolentino), the
mother Infanta (Jonathan Janolo) and the white cat( alternately played by children)
 While set in a western royal court, the ballet is interestingly had very Pinoy elements in terms of costume, colors,
fiesta standards of fuchsia pink, loud green, and bright red and yellow.
 What added interest to the story ballet was the use of Original Pilipino Music- Kailangan Kita and Ikaw ang Lahat
sa Akin put together by musical arranger Arnold Buena.
 Macuja-Elizalde played the eldest of the king’s 12 daughters, who would secretly leave their bedroom at night to
visit an enchanted land to dance with enchanted princes.
 The second story Ang Palasyo ng Dwende showed the most appeal and promise among the three ballets
choreographed by Gerardo Francisco a former dance master of Dagyaw Theater and Dance Company in
Mindanao.
 Francisco incorporates neo-ethnic movements reminiscent of Mindanao lumad and the ancient Pintados , set to
the layered music of Diwa de Leon, who is known for his venture into the hegalong, a two-stringed native lute.
 An added heartwarming delight are the dwarves mostly played by little children who oozed cuteness as they
danced their parts using from pop culture, though some comic variatios of the itik-itik folkdance.
 The ballet was also helped by aerial theater machines that lifted some key dancers upwards, including the
enchanted bird-prince.
 The last ballet Anting –Anting is a horror-fantacy-comedy featuring Huan, a cowardly hero who wants to
overcome his fears in order to win the maiden he loves.
 Michael Divinagracia, a look-alike of comedian Jose Manalo jovially interpreted the character.
 The entire dance involved much acting from the dances and had all the elements of slapstick comedy, with the use
of exaggerated, boisterous movements to portray how Huan is bullied by the young townsmen.
 The setting was provincial with bahay kubo and a traditional sari-sari store.
 The men dressed in farmer’s clothing and the ladies in kimono and saya.
 The dance ended with a facial scene where Huan finds himself haunted by ghosts inside a cemetery as he tries to
acquire an anting-anting.
 With the mounting influence of the internet and high tech gadgets in it refreshing to go back to the magic of
reading and listening to age-old tales that provides lesson that may fill us once more with hardiness and wisdom.