A Sparkling 'Cinderella' For Christmas

The family classic, the little children’s favorite, the magical tale of Cinderella, is back. And along with Alice Reyes’ choreography (Nonoy Froilan is Regisseur), Salvador Bernal’s set design, and the Tchaikovsky score; the story is brought to amazing and amusing, vibrant life. To see the faces of the young girls watching, and evidently transported to a kingdom far away, was enough for this cynic to salute Ballet Philippines on this production.

It’s their holiday season offering, and it provides an extraordinary amount of sparkle, technical prowess, and comedic delights to fascinate any audience. This is one impressive ensemble piece, with the whole company utilized and put through their paces; to give us scope and grandeur.

Monica Gana (on the night I watched) makes the most of her star turn as Cinderella, gifting us with an ebullient, enthusiastic performance. The essence of any Cinderella performance is conveying the aspect of her being taken advantage of by her stepmother and stepsisters. And it’s to the credit of Monica that despite being a non-speaking part, she meets our expectations and evokes the right kind of sympathy for her Cinderella.

Liza de la Fuente makes for an imperious stepmother; while Denise Parungao and Jemima Reyes are to high points of the night as the evil, bullying stepsisters. They have to play awkward and clumsy while still executing the balletic steps. I especially loved what Denise was doing, creating a signature extra motion with her hands and wrist that was hilarious. Both Denise and Jemima were the proverbial life of the party, somehow executing slapstick comedy on a graceful ballet stage.

The athletic Earl John Arisola is Prince Charming. And I remembered how at the press con, mention was made of how this year, there are actually more men than women in the company, due to the number of new male applicants. This is put to good use, and it helped create my second highlight of the performance—when the fairy godmother first appears to Cinderella and we're whisked to an enchanted forest, filled with magical, dancing creatures.

There definitely is a sprinkling of fairy dust in the air at the CCP whenever Cinderella will be performed, so be sure to book your seats now, as only a total of eight performances has been lined up. The matinees will even have the story narrated by Tats Manahan. Here is one must-see show of Ballet Philippines’ glorious 50th season.