by Carlo P. MalloWhen Margie Moran-Floirendo was growing up, she once dreamed of becoming a prima ballerina – doing pirouettes on stage, executing the perfect assemblé, or bourreé, but never did she expect to head one of the country’s premier ballet company, Ballet Philippines.
“Bringing ballet to the community or outside Metro Manila is one of our missions. We want more people to be able to enjoy the arts, especially ballet,” Margie said.
Ballet Philippines has traveled around the country to bring ballet to the people.
“The hunger for Filipinos for arts outside Metro Manila is there, it is growing,” Margie said. “It is not like in Manila where one can watch plays and performances at the Cultural Center of the Philippines every week.”
And that is what prompted the former Miss Universe titlist to bring to Davao City a production that can be very well called a Davao production.
“It is an Agnes Locsin original and the music is by Joey Ayala. Even the artistic director is from Davao City, Paul Morales,” Margie said. “It’s like a homecoming for the production.”
Encantada, which will have its gala show tonight at the Philippine Women’s College, is a multi-awarded prduction. Last year, it won 10 awards at the Gawad Buhay Awards –including Outstanding Modern Dance Production, Outstanding Choreography for a modern Dance Production, Outstanding Musical Composition, and Outstanding Ensemble Performance.
While many people still see ballet as a snooty and elitist form of art, it drives Margie to fight back the perception and strive harder for people to appreciate this particular form of art.
“It is just a perception. Ballet encompasses all strata of society. More and more Filipinos now learn to appreciate ballet, even at the CCP, most of the audience are ordinary Filipinos who would come from work, students, some even would travel from as far as Nueva Ecija or Batangas,” Margie said. “Even here in Davao, selling the show was easy as schools readily grabbed the opportunity to bring their students to see the performance.”
Ballet Philippines is not only about bringing arts to the common Filipino, it is also about changing the lives of the Filipino people.
“The story of our dancers is actually inspiring. We have dancers whom we send through college on scholarship, there are some dancers who walk from their homes to the center – these are our dancers who come from the communities and would want to have a better shot,” Margie said.
Most of the funding of the ballet company comes from grants and sponsorships.
“We always have to find ways to raise money to support the ballet company. With our 65 employees, it’s a pretty big payroll to balance. But we find ways,” Margie said.
“I have been working with the communities for quite sometime already – women, peace, social development, with ballet you can integrate all of them together,” Margie said. “Ballet can create a better world for everyone.”
Students who watch ballet, as studies showed, have better grades, better readers. One can only imagine what a community who appreciates ballet can become.
