Alice Reyes Dance Philippines’ restaging of ‘Carmina Burana’ was of epic proportions

From paganistic exuberance to spiritual sublimity, Carmina Burana transitioned quite dauntingly for the ballet performers who danced through Orff’s music barefoot. It was a test of endurance and strength for the company, yet they delivered it with precision and energy. Adding to the ethereal atmosphere given by the ensemble, the boys’ choir’s dulcissima voices, Maigue and Park’s heart-tugging duets and solos, and more is the visual feast offered by Bernal—heavy smoke billowed from the cauldron, emblematic of life-giving force, as the crystal-like rock formations move as the dancers transition from one number to another, allowing Monino Duque’s lighting design radiate the pieces like stained glasses in motion.

Read more: Cultivating opera and orchestra music in the Philippines

Despite its many stagings, Reyes’s Carmina Burana continues to be a dynamic piece that progresses over time, as the National Artist herself shared during the ARDP press conference. She has always adored Orff’s dramatic music set in this for its power and rhythm. The original text material came from Codex Buranus, a collection of poems by the goliards, a group of generally young clergy in Europe who wrote satirical Latin poetry in the Middle Ages. But in its satire comes the truth about communal experiences, and these Reyes exorcised through this modern contemporary ballet show of epic proportions.

In rendering a text from the Middle Ages, choral and orchestra music written in the 1930s, and reworking a choreography and theatre design from the Seventies, ARDP’s 2024 Carmina Burana is an amalgamation of creative ingenuity from separate periods of historical importance and varied forms of art yet remained timeless and resonant in its message of communal development.

Although the show takes its title from the company’s second-act offering, its first act was also worth noting. A revue including some of the iconic Filipino ballet choreographies in the contemporary period, ARDP’s first act showcased Dugso (The Offering), Summer’s End, and After Whom.

Dugso was a groundbreaking collaboration between Reyes and Santos, National Artists for Dance and Music, respectively, in 1972, with Bernal, who designed the costume, which veers away from the traditional dresses (except for the inked patterns) of the Manobo people, from which the dance’s heritage could be traced. Ray Albano designed its set. The dance traces its roots to the mentioned indigenous people’s ceremonial dance, performed in Bukidnon, Agusan, and Misamis Oriental.

Known for its sacredness, the dance incorporates Maranao instruments like kulintang and agung, which the Tugtugang Musika Asyatika gladly performed for this show together with the Philippine Madrigal Singers as its singers. Percussive bells could also be heard, which was true to the music’s origin.

Reyes is known for her neo-Filipino ballet choreography, which infuses classical ballet technique with indigenous tribal dances but renders them in a contemporary dance form. Dugso exemplifies this with its vitality onstage and is a prelude to Carmina Burana’s ritualistic nature.

Dugso is a form of thanksgiving prayer offered by the Manobo people for many reasons. These can include a good harvest, healing of the sick, or a battle about to happen. In this rendition by Santos and Reyes, we see two families chosen to have their children, a man and a woman, bonded spiritually to please the gods.

It is somewhat unclear if the tribe offered the two lives in such a macabre way, but Norman Walker’s romantic pas de deux afterwards satisfies the audience’s thirst for romance.

Dancing through the romance (larghetto) section of Frédéric Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in E Minor, Lester Reguindin and Monica Gana delivered a heartwarming performance of internationally renowned choreographer Norman Walker’s Summer’s End. Albeit empty, the stage was lit with striking sunset colours thanks to Duque’s romantic lighting, offering penumbra to the two dancers’ bodies.

The intimacy in this piece, choreographed by a dear friend of Reyes, lies in the narrative’s arc—finding each other, falling in love, being clouded by hesitances, going through their lives separately, and seeing each other again. Gana and Reguindin worked together to execute specific highlights of the piece, captivating the audience with pain and passion throughout the choreography.

This exhibition of tension and release was magnified in After Whom, a riveting choreography by globally renowned Filipino ballet performer and choreographer Augustus ‘Bam’ Damian III.

This fitting finale to the first act is a bold showcase of the company’s dynamism and bravado. Rawness and vulnerability shone in this 2024 performance, as expressed in the bareness of the stage, allowing the audience to see the wings and backstage. The versatility of the company members could be seen in this piece’s gender-bending costuming, where male dancers performed in skirts and female dancers danced with sheen polos.

After Whom is an abstract piece highlighting the company’s prowess in modern, contemporary, and neo-classical genres. Its choreography hints at power struggle dynamics, but the dancers’ facial expressions and fearless attacks as they performed their parts gave the piece much more vitality and intrigue.

In this battle of the sexes, we see each of the ADP’s principal dancers and the dance trainees from the University of the East’s Silanganan Dance Troupe have their shining moments, completing the repertoire that resonates with June’s themes of heroism, resilience, and power.

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