Happy February! – You blink and January is gone.
February is National Arts Month – so there is a lot of flurry and activity all over the Philippines as far as art exhibits and presentations are concerned. Ballet Manila is booked solid for all the weekends of February! A great sign!
February is also, of course, the LOVE month. With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, the new arrivals of Spring / Summer collections are already displayed. Text messages and invitations come advertising this arrival and that. Fred hates Valentine’s Day. He claims it comes too soon after Christmas and New Year. True. It also comes just at about the same time the credit card bills come in from the holiday spending!
In all the years of my marriage, I never received a Valentine’s present from my hubby. And, we never went out for a Valentine’s dinner either. Too much traffic, too full restaurants and always, always – I have a performance to dance.
This Valentine’s Day, I will be dancing my favourite romantic heroine role one more time. Juliet in Romeo and Juliet for me is a role that I can really sink my teeth, and toes, into – and I always find something new about her. Ever since my first Romeo and Juliet as a guest ballerina with The Royal New Zealand Ballet in 1987 (the Malcholm Burnes version) – I’ve had the opportunity to dance Juliet in several more productions and never grow tired of portraying her. To quote Shrek, “Juliet is like an onion. There are so many layers that you peel through.”
In both the Prokofiev version and Tchaikovsky version (both of which I am dancing this month), there is a “growing up” that Juliet does all within the ballet’s timeframe that the ballerina is expected to convey clearly through movement and expression. A teenager developing a crush at her first party, to a girl torn between loyalty to family or the promise of true love, to a woman desperate enough to drink a potion that would simulate death not really sure if Romeo will be there when she wakes up.
The “meat” of emotions that one experiences dancing Juliet is enough to drain me of all energy at the end of the ballet. I love dying onstage. Maybe because I am already half-dead from exhaustion and yet I still feel the need to think about how I can creatively turn my head and breath my last breath before truly expiring on top of Romeo’s chest!
Try to catch Ballet Manila’s finale of our 14th season this February as well! Ballet & Ballads with Basil Valdez on February 19, 20 and 21 in Aliw Theater! Expect a lot of romance!
