Ballet Philippines

A month ago, our class was able to see a wonderful performance of Ballet Philippines' Christmas Special Pamaskong Handog: Snow White at the CCP Nicanor Abelardo Theatre 1st Balcony at the cost of only P300. It has truly been worth-it and a great way to set the atmosphere of the Christmas holidays.

When we arrived at the main theatre, the lights were already off and almost all seats were already occupied. I suppose we were about 5minutes late, so we were actually first seated at the front & left most area that the boxes were blocking our view. So I decided to go outside and enter the central door entrance. At first, the usherette actually refused to give me a seat knowing that I was already seated at the corner. Good that she gave in when she saw that my previous seat was already taken by another person. So there Ð'- I got a better view of the stage performance. 

Basically, the ballet show had two parts: the ballet narrative story telling of Snow White, and then the actual, hard-core ballet performance. In the first part, the stage was very magical in set with complete and exceptionally colorful props and materials. It just felt like it was all real Ð'- the house, all that is in it, the trees, everything! It was simply lovely to watch the performance, with the added color brought by the ballet dance itself. In this narrative part, although the story was more emphasized, the ballet dance was evidently given equal importance in every move of the dancers, even of the dwarves! ^_^ One dwarf, who I believe is Dopey, really caught the audience's attention. The dwarves' role in the show was really the fun part, especially when they got too close to the (orchestral) audience. It was just amazing how they were still able to move in a ballerina way inside their mascot costume and shoes!

And yes, it was also remarkable how the show was made more magical with the presence of fairies and other fairy tale characters. All the performers' dresses were beautiful and colorful or simply, just fit for the performance. Truly, Ballet Philippines version of Snow White has been classically wonderful.

As for their ballet dance performance, I would give them a fair rating of very good. Although in the first part, majority was of simple choreography only, the second