Alice Reyes Dance Philippines held a one-day performance of a new ballet, ‘Mga Kuwento ni Juan Tamad’ early this month at the Samsung Performing Arts Theatre in Circuit Makati. It was a wonderful, joyous celebration of dance that was specifically targeting the younger audience. With book, direction, and choreography by Erl Sorilla, ‘Mga Kuwento ni Juan Tamad’ was an hour-long performance that was funny and romantic and full of gorgeous Filipino imagery. It was light and fast-paced and showed off the wonders of ballet with a little hint of contemporary, modern dance to keep the target audience glued to the stage.

It’s a simple enough story about how Buwaya stole a golden coconut, which brought good fortune to a village. Juan Tamad goes by his dad being lazy until he meets Maria Masipag, the daughter of the village elder who held the golden coconut for the village. While Juan and Maria fell in love, her parents won’t let her be with someone so lazy. To dissuade him, they task him to find the missing golden coconut. If he brings it back to the village, he can be with Maria. Despite his name, Juan Tamad goes off with his animal companion, Matsing, in search for the prize. On the way, he meets other animal companions until his big battle with the Buwaya.

Sorilla’s choreography is fun and big and clean. He makes full use of his ensemble of seven dancers that the village feels like a full village, and he incorporates Loy Arcenas’ inventive and ingenious costume designs into the performance. The villagers look like they are straight off an Amorsolo painting but when he gets to the animals, they are complete with tails and headpieces. The crocodile has a huge tail that swings around when he spins and it’s to the company’s skill and handwork (and Sorilla’s blocking and direction) that no one ever gets hit (unless intended). Loy Arcenas also designed the set and makes clever use of three wheeled panels that look like coconut trees, and they are wheeled around to show Juan Tamad and Matsing searching through the forest for Buwaya and it feels like they are really moving from place to place despite it still being the same stage.

It’s fun and ingenious ideas like this that makes the play so enjoyable, and it was such a treat for all the young people in the audience, some of them as young as Grade 3 or Grade 4. I was also happy to see two whole blocks of children from two different schools who were present, and they were squealing with joy, especially from the antics of Matsing.

While Renzen Arboleda was terrific as Juan Tamad. He was charming and his movements were precise, his jumps were impressive. On his duet with Maria, performed beautifully by Karla Santos. But it was Dan Dayo as Matsing who really stole the show. Matsing’s choreography was more hyper. It allowed him to be playful and silly and required more jumps and cartwheels. It was a showier character. While not as showy as Matsing, Ejay Arisola had a much harder time as Buwaya. His costume was detailed with a maw and a long tail that he incorporated fully into his performance. The fact that he was able to do all of the amazing things he did on stage speaks so much of his skill. The other two standouts were Monica Gana as Kuneho and Krislynne Buri as Paboreal. Gana, as Kuneho, was funny and spritely. She really looked like a rabbit on stage while Buri had the unenviable task of dancing in Paboreal’s costume, a full-on skirt of shiny material to serve as her peacock feathers. Luckily, she and Buwaya performed a ballroom-inspired duet that was so interesting to watch with their tail and skirt flying with their precise shifts in movement.

Knowing that it’s ballet for children, I could understand that the choreography had to be big and fun and playful. I even welcomed some of the movements almost resembling modern urban dance before it returns to its ballet roots. It keeps it familiar for the kids. I do have a bit of issue at the start when the ballet attempts to establish Juan Tamad as lazy. We see the villagers asking him to do things for him and instead of doing them, he just lies down and sleeps. More than lazy, it paints him more as unreliable or irresponsible. And on the other hand, Maria Masipag is meant to be hardworking and we see her do a lovely solo dance sweeping around her house and other chores and this gives off responsible and diligent. These are abstractions, of course, but something I wish was given a little more thought to in the process.

But other than that, what a wonderful show and I hope Alice Reyes Dance Philippines continues to produce more shows like this because dance is such a wonderful avenue for kids, both as entertainment and something that they might want to try out for themselves.

My Rating:

Mga Kuwento ni Juan Tamad by Alice Reyes Dance Philippines, an all-original production choreographed by Erl Sorilla, premiered last November 10 at the Samsung Performing Arts Theater.