There are presently three major ballet companies in the Philippines: Ballet Philippines, Philippine Ballet Theatre and Ballet Manila. With such close-sounding names, many Filipinos and foreigners often mistake them for each other, not really aware that there could be more than one company presenting full evening dance productions in Manila. But each company is actually quite distinctive upon close inspection.
3 Ballet Companies in the Philippines
Of the three companies, Ballet Philippines is currently at the forefront of modern and contemporary dance and takes pride in pushing its experimentations. Meanwhile, Ballet Manila is its polar opposite, putting on classical ballets in the Vaganova tradition, that is, in the manner that they were intended when they were first staged in Russia before the turn of the 20th century. BP had some classical ballets in their repertoire and BM had contemporary works in theirs, but it was clear where each company's focus lay.
Philippine Ballet Theatre then was somewhere in the middle. It produced classical ballets, but not in the rigid Russian Vaganova style. It also produced new choreographic works, but not as experimental as BP. PBT's non-classical repertoire was filled mostly with neo-classic works instead, an example being their last staged production, Gener Caringal's Darangen ni Bantugen, staged in May 2008.
Both BP and PBT hold regular season performances at the Main Theater of the Cultural Center of the Philippines, while BM's season shows are staged either at the Aliw Theater or the smaller Star Theater, both part of the infrastructure of the amusement park, Star City, right next door to the CCP. The incorporation of the theaters with the amusement park is part of the BM mission, a strategy to bring ballet closer to the masses.
Each ballet company seems to serve different functions to cater to the needs of different people. Of course, there have been incidences when the companies presented the same ballets, sometimes in the same year. La Bayadere, for example, was seen at the CCP in 2004, and then again in the Aliw Theater across the street a month later. Audiences thought it was one company doing an extended run of La Bayadere, when it was actually two different productions.
Ballet and the Nation's progress
Ballet Philippines and Philippine Ballet Theatre are both resident companies of the CCP. This is actually only a partial subsidy; they receive a particular amount from the center and agree to do their own marketing and fundraising, as well. They each have one season each year, alternating the use of the CCP's main theater between July and March of the next year. Ballet Manila has a private/corporate sponsor, and its own marketing strategies as well. Aside from its August to February season, the company regularly performs in circus shows staged for the amusement park adjacent to the theater.
There have been attempts to consolidate the two CCP resident companies under one National ballet company, but neither BP nor PBT had been particularly cooperative. The styles of the two companies are now vastly different that joining the two would change a particular dynamic. Although not financially sound, having three major ballet companies staging regular seasons in legitimate theaters can also be seen as symbolic of national progress.
Of course, it is not as impressive as in the US, where most states have at least one ballet company, and can have as much as five, or in Germany, where the government-subsidized dance companies approach forty, but the fact that the Philippines has three ballet companies, separate from a national folk dance company, has helped earn prestige for the country.
Joelle Jacinto - I once applied for a job and the boss interviewing me asked, "So when did you start writing?" I fumbled with my reply, really ...
