"Beauty and the Beast"
Sun.Star Davao, Nov. 24, 2007

I was recently invited to watch the amazing ballet production of “Beauty and the Beast” at the CAP Grand Auditorium. Being one of my favorites as a child, I was elated that this classic story was brilliantly interpreted through the art of dance.

The two-act show was a joint project of the Girlie S. Royeca School of Ballet, Ateneo de Davao Ballet in association with the Atlanta Festival Ballet, U.S.A.; and in cooperation with the National Commission for Culture and the Arts.

Adorable little ballerinas delighted the audience as they gracefully danced as flowers, love birds, woodland sprites, butterflies, courtiers and unicorns to serve as supporting cast to the principal dancers.

Young beauty

Guest artist Elizabeth Ferguson magnificently portrayed the role of the kind-hearted Beauty. It was the 15-year old Elizabeth’s first time to visit and perform in the Philippines.

Dancing at three years old, the talented ballerina joined the Atlanta Festival Ballet as an apprentice this season. She began classes at the school five years ago.

Elizabeth was given featured roles as she began excelling in her technique early on. Last year, the active teenager shared the role of Clara in Atlanta Festival Ballet’s “The Nutcracker”.

Elizabeth, who is of Peruvian ancestry, is a sophomore at Cathedral Academy and Clariece Paulk School of the Performing Arts in Atlanta, U.S.A. She comes from a family of seven children.

Her guest performance in Davao is just the beginning of the planned cultural exchange between the two prestigious ballet schools.

“We hope to be able to bring dancers from Davao to dance in Atlanta Festival Ballet productions and have Atlanta Festival Ballet dancers perform in Royeca School of Ballet productions on a regular basis. That’s our goal, now we have to make it happen!”, says Atlanta Festival Ballet’s co-artistic director Gregory Aaron.

A Baryshnikov moment

Nicolas Pacaña, who is co-artistic director of Atlanta Festival Ballet and Balletcenter Cebu, starred as the strong-willed Beast.

Nicolas is a distinguished and in-demand guest artist, teacher and choreographer in the international ballet community.

He made his professional debut with the Honolulu City Ballet after studying on scholarship with Patricia Slander in Los Angeles. He later joined the Boston Ballet as a soloist and quickly rose to the rank of Principal Dancer. He became recognized among the finest classical danseurs.

One of the most memorable moments of Nicolas’ professional career happened when he was called upon to replace an injured Mikhail Baryshnikov in the Don Quixote Pas de Deux with only four hours notice during the legendary Baryshnikov’s Atlanta tour in 1987.

“Beauty and the Beast” is originally choreographed by Nicolas and has been performed by the Atlanta Festival Ballet and toured throughout the southeast United States since 1997.

Stage debut

The successful production also marked the stage debut of the SOS Children’s Village boys who are ballet scholars of the Girlie S. Royeca School of Ballet.

They are namely: Robert Marcuelo, 16; Ronald Mapande, 12; Felix Rama,15; Rengie Pablegar,16; Jayson Tangpos,17; Reynald Villafuerte,14; Peter Orencio,14; Danilo Esparago,13; and Jose Salvana, 12.

SOS Children's Village is a private, non-denominational and non-government welfare institution that provides long term care and education to less fortunate children or children in extreme difficult circumstances.

According to Girlie, the SOS children have always been invited to watch past ballet productions such as “Little Mermaid”, “Alice in Wonderland”, “The Nutcracker”, “The Jungle Book” and “Peter Pan”.

However, it was only last August that she thought of making the SOS boys her ballet scholars. The boys are used to performing cultural, ethnic and modern dances during special programs at SOS.

With only four months of twice-a-week rehearsals, the boys did their best to learn basic ballet steps worthy enough for the “Beauty and Beast” show.

“At first, we felt awkward having leg and feet stretching exercise and wearing ballet tights”, share the energetic boys.

“Learning ballet was hard yet we enjoyed ourselves so much. It was quite awesome rehearsing with other ballet dancers and with the very professional Mr. Aaron. We felt like real stage theatre actors”, they add.

Through ballet, the SOS boys revealed that they eventually developed their self-esteem. “We overcame our shyness and gained confidence to face others”, they enthuse.

Next week, join me as I visit the SOS Children’s Village!

Special thanks to Bert Tomas for the photos on this page.

(I would love to read your comments and suggestions! E-mail me at mom.about.town.dvo@gmail.com. Visit http://www.mom-about-town.blogspot.com)