Midsummer Night's Dream by Ballet Philippines : A Delicious Taste of Ballet

(This is the first post in a series of valentine dates that me and ray had. :) Not only did we have one, nor two dates, but we had FOUR. hahah amf! There's was a pre-valentine-simplejoys date, a valentine-working-date, a post-valentine-ballet-date, and a super date!)

For my valentines gift, I've been thinking of something new to give Ray, a new experience that we've never done before. I remembered our bucket list including a wish of watching a stage play together. Incidentally I dropped by my Ensogo notifications and voila! "A Midsummer Nights' Dream" vouchers were available for an incredible discount!

Official poster to A Midsummer Night's Dream

So I proceeded to buy for the two of us, then made a really nice envelop to hold it with. I handed it to him during our ice-cream-valentines-working date last Feb 14 and we were all set to go.

Tickets in exchange for the voucher :)

The show was set last Feb 15 (it was up until last Feb 17 Sunday), 8pm tthe CCP Main Theater. I think I was a young kid when I last stepped in there. We got at the venue by around 6:30 and still had time to go around and marvel at the classic beauty of the CCP. Timeless!

I've been checking out the synopsis of the play for the past couple of days prior the show, but it was only during dinner that night when i realized that this was going to be a full ballet, with no spoken lines, only music. I guess I expected it to be half-ballet, half dialogue-ish? Hehe. I've watched a couple of theater acts before but not a full ballet, and so did Ray. So I thought this was gonna be really interesting/ intriguing.

As I read PDI's article, it said that the show's main choreographer, Carlo Pacis' goal was to ensure that even a young kid who had never watched ballet would understand the complications of the plot. So I was like "hah! we're your perfect targets!"

Just a side note, I found it funny how under dressed we were. Everyone came in their cocktail dresses, some even looked like they were attending a prom, while we were just in our shirt and jeans heheh! Heller we came from the office! :p I guess i'll just remember to dress better next time hahah. We weren't letting anything ruin our night anyway. :P

So the curtains were drawn and everyone fell into a hushed silence. Then, colorful fairies started to appear onstage. And our ballet treat has just begun. :) :)

To be frank, I got worried that we'd be bored. :/ Well because it's ballet, and there was a stereotype of white ladies dancing in their tiptoes with hands up high and that's that. But I really had a whole new appreciation of ballet with the show. I guess it helped that they added a lot of modern elements in it. But I couldn't help but get amazed with everyone. They were GLIDING. No one was walking at all! hahah.

I really liked the 3-D effect of the thin cloth drawn in the middle of the stage where lights were projected to make it look like the fairies were glowing. It was so magical! The whole set was a colorful play of lights, sounds, and youthful energy.

I think the show was able to successfully portray the comedy of Shakespeare, it showed the silly games of love and how it can really spin us all into a complicated web. Titania, the white queen was super beautiful and regal, I loved her grace. My favorite was Helena. She's a mortal who's hopelessly in-love with Demetrius, but Demetrius loves someone else (Hermia). She kind of brought the comedic appeal to the play (along with Puck), because of her gaslaw-kulit-flirts and attempts to seduce Demetrius. So wait, gaslaw? In ballet? Yes! I loved how Helena had her gaslaw-moments but retained the poise of ballet. Yung bang sumampa ka na't lahat sa likod, open legs and all, pero straight body with all the lines in tact? Hahah hasteeg. 

I also liked the character of the flower. For this play, the flower was given her own character and she's this tiny cute energetic lady. Her "juice" is responsible for making the characters fall in love with the first person they see. And she does it by stretching her hands and wiggling them. I tell you me and Ray were wiggling our hands on everything until we got home that night. Hahah! Her dance pieces with Puck were very entertaining, i couldn't help but smile everytime i saw her onstage.

And Puck. Geez. I bet at the end of the night, siya na yung pinaka-pagod. Haha! Ang tindeeeh! Well for one he had the longest exposure. His character was playful, naughty, and was responsible for all the twists and turns of the plot. Each appearance from him was overflowing with energy: lifts, jumps, backflips, and you never know what he's doing next. Grabe ang galing talaga. Ang galing nilang LAHAT.

It only got a little dragging during the wedding-reception part, though I think it was classical ballet at its best. This show taught me how dance could really articulate feelings, emotions, sometimes more than words can do. At one point you'd actually forget that there were no dialogues because it's like the music and the movements were already speaking to you.

Two full hours, no lines, only two universal languages: love and music. And it was amazing. :)

It was memorable how Ray said "Thank you sa pagdala mo sakin dito, nakita kong may mga ganito pala sa Pilipinas". I think its always a blessing when someone realizes how talented Filipinos really are. That we are capable of producing world class acts like this, and that we are so much worth watching. I hope more and more people would appreciate the joys of watching live acts like this.

Taking photos were prohibited inside, but of course we couldn't let it pass without at least a pic of both of us :P

Super enjoy!

In a nutshell, WE REALLY, REALLY LOOOOVED this offering of Ballet Philippines. And I'm so happy we did this! The staff was very friendly and accomodating, by they way. Thank God for Ensogo, for discount deals like this that we otherwise wouldn't have been able to afford heheh. I wanna do this again! I'm excited for our next stage play! :) And thank you, Ballet Philippines, we're your new fans! :) :)