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Ballet Philippines stages a festive ‘Peter Pan’ in December
Here's a treat for families during the holiday season: Ballet Philippines is restaging Edna Vida Froilan’s “Peter Pan.”
The production will showcase the skills of three leading male dancers, who will essay the title role alternately: BP's principal dancer Jean Marc Cordero, principal soloist Cyril Aran Fallar, and soloist Victor Maguad, who is making his debut as Peter Pan. The other two had already played the character in past productions.
Alternating in the role of Wendy are Rita Angela Winder, Jemima Reyes, and Monica Amanda Gana.
In December 1983, BP premiered Vida Froilan’s full-evening modern ballet version of the J.M. Barrie tale to the accompaniment of a 1954 musical score.
BP dancers Edward Malagkit, Ramon Victoria, and Conrad Dy-Liacco alternated in the title role, with Toni Lopez Gonzalez, Cecile Sicangco, and Hazel Sabas starring as Wendy. Vida Froilan’s husband, celebrated dancer Nonoy Froilan, played Captain Hook.
The production was restaged in 1986, 1992, 2001, and 2010. Notable dancers who have played Peter Pan include Elmer Domdom, Dwight Rodrigazo, Ardee Dionisio, Clark Rambuyon, Philip Rocamora, Grethel Domingo and Christine Crame.
In 2004, BP also produced Peter Pan’s “Never Never Land” segment as part of the centennial celebration of the Peter Pan legend. Alden Lugnasin and his creative collaborators used a mélange of the existing Pan chronicles to create a distinctly modern version of the high-flying narrative.
Vida Froilan, who is choreographing the production again this year, noted that the original Broadway production of "Peter Pan" premiered in the year of her birth, 1954. She was 29 in 1983 when she first did choreography for the production.
“I was still on a pregnancy leave having just given birth to our first-born and flowing with creative juices,” she said.
To prepare, Vida Froilan visited the library of photographer Rudy Vidad, whose collection of music, films, and videos was “everything a young choreographer could ask for.” It was Vidad who introduced her to the play's Broadway musical version.
“I was a bit apprehensive. It has never been attempted before: to choreograph a ballet version of Peter Pan to the music of its Broadway musical. It was to be my first full-length ballet,” she said.
Even now, Vida Froilan said that she still “wrestles with the images of the characters and have continuously asked the BP dancers to create their own Peters, Wendys, Tinkerbells, and Captain Hooks.”
“These characters all have a slippery disposition, subject to one’s personal interpretation … I tell the dancers, go figure! Create your own history, be an onion and create those layers to become tangible characters,” she said.
Inspired by the 1954 Broadway production, Vida Froilan said her choreography of Peter Pan is “highly influenced by the musical theatre genre.”
Highlights include the tap-dancing crocodile, the energetic Lost Boys featuring scholars of BP Dance School, the purely classical Mermaids, and, of course, the glorious flying sequences with Peter, the Darling children, and Tinkerbell. — BM, GMA News
"Peter Pan" runs at the Cultural Center of the Philippines' Tanghalang Nicanor Abelardo from Dec. 4 to 13.
For inquiries, visit www.ballet.ph, email info@ballet.ph, or call Ballet Philippines at 551-1003. For tickets and reservations, call the CCP Box Office at 832-3704 or Ticketworld at 891-9999.
