Expounding on a popular excerpt

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ROMEO PERALTA, Mark Sumaylo, and Abigail Oliveiro in BM’s Paquita.

SHAMIRA DROPETE and Jos David Andes

Ballet Manila stages first full-length Paquita in the Philippines

TWO STAR PAIRS of Ballet Manila will be alternating in the lead roles of Paquita, which will be performed in full for the first time ever in the Philippines this June.

Principal dancers Abigail Oliveiro and Mark Sumaylo, and soloists Shamira Dropete and Jos David Andes, were handpicked by Ballet Manila artistic director Lisa Macuja-Elizalde for their “strong technique and endurance.” They are set to perform at the Aliw Theater on June 19 at 8 p.m. June 20 at 5 p.m., and June 21 at 5 p.m.

The journey to staging this full-length production began in March 2025. One of the divertissements — a short ballet sequence or interlude — performed during Ballet Manila’s Pearl Gala was an excerpt of Paquita.

Then it was time to do the whole thing.

Ms. Macuja-Elizalde had always been curious about staging the entirety of the ballet. “Creating a full-length ballet is like giving birth,” she explained at a June 9 press conference. “And Paquita is rarely produced as a full-length, so I think it’s something new that can be part of our classical ballet legacy from now on.”

At its core, Paquita is a story of love, self-discovery, and triumph, centered on the titular young Romani woman in Spain who saves the life of a French officer, Lucien, from a governor’s assassination plot.

For Ms. Oliveiro, who has danced the divertissement before, embodying the character for the full story feels different. “Paquita is very free-spirited and she loves dancing a lot. She’s also feisty and knows how to get what she wants,” she said.

However, because of an injury, her original partner Joshua Enciso who was set to play Lucien, had to back out. Her real-life partner and fellow principal dancer Mr. Sumaylo stepped in.

This meant the pair had to recalibrate to be stage partners and not just partners in life.

“I’m excited. A little bit overwhelmed, but mostly grateful for the opportunity,” he said on how he felt coming in at the last minute. “You discover a lot with the miming and dancing and being part of the creation process of a new ballet.”

HAPPY ENDING
Ms. Macuja-Elizalde explained that her version of Paquita adds more meat to the backstory, with a prologue and two acts, plus more developed comic parts.

“Tatiana Udalenkova, my mentor, once told me that if you put on a ballet where the audience needs to read the program to understand, then you’re not an effective choreographer,” she said. “That’s why I wanted a prologue.”

A fun trope in the story is that Paquita discovers she has noble heritage, allowing the couple to overcome rigid social barriers and marry in a happy ending.

“The story is very similar to Giselle, except it has a happy ending for the leads. The story is a lot like a telenovela with twists and turns. It opens with a murder-kidnapping, then a love triangle, and then a betrothal,” Ms. Macuja-Elizalde said.

Filipinos can expect a version that merges tradition with her own artistic sensibilities, she added. It is also perfect for Ballet Manila’s capabilities, being “a right-sized company with 38 dancers strong who can do both classical technique and Spanish style.

“I think Paquita is a little bit easier to do as a full-length ballet because I have a lot of help with the preexisting choreographies. It’s harder and more ambitious to do a ballet completely from scratch,” she explained. “What I like about this ballet is that I could play around with it more because of all the mini stories. That’s the most fun part of it.”

Ms. Macuja-Elizalde concluded that story ballets are an art form that must be kept alive.

“We’re telling a story without having to say a single word. It’s a performing art that’s highly elevated because, for me, it’s the consummation of years and years of training to become a professional dancer, to be able to do all of those technical things that you see on stage but at the same time make it look easy and effortless,” she said.

“Dancers have been called performing athletes and we perform with our bodies to be able to tell a story, portray a character, set a mood, and move the audience.”

Performances of Paquita, running from June 19 to 21, will be staged at the Aliw Theater, CCP Complex, Pasay City. For tickets, visit www.ticketworld.com.ph. — Brontë H. Lacsamana