Top performing artists of 2013
It was the year music, theater and dance thrived amid unpredictable monsoon floods and record-breaking typhoons and earthquakes.
January 5, 2014
Menu
It was the year music, theater and dance thrived amid unpredictable monsoon floods and record-breaking typhoons and earthquakes.
“Ballerina of the People” Lisa Macuja had a triple threat for her many fans at year’s end: “Le Corsaire,” “La Bayadere,” and, for Christmas, the traditional “The Nutcracker” (Aliw Theater, Pasay City).
Within a few weeks, the dancers of Ballet Philippines shifted gears from the female-dominated classical “Giselle” to the testosterone-driven dance theater premiere, “Rock Supremo,” making good the wish of founding artistic director Alice Reyes to create a company that can do both classical and modern, as she intimated in her spiel in the 1985 television special “Elvira Manahan and Other Dancers.”
Diva Lea Salonga, prima ballerina Lisa Macuja-Elizalde and virtuoso pianist Cecile Licad once more awed music and dance lovers in their repeat performance of “The Legends and the Classics” at the Cultural Center of the Philippines.
The Japan Foundation, Manila (JFM) celebrates the 40th anniversary of Asean-Japan Friendship and Cooperation with the production, “The Restaurant of Many Orders,” by the Koike Hiroshi Bridge Project, on Oct. 16, 8 p.m., at the Tanghalang Aurelio Tolentino (Little Theater) of the Cultural Center of the Philippines in Pasay City.
Pramoedya Ananta Toer is an Indonesian novelist who spent many years in a bleak island-prison during the Suharto regime. He was also a supporter of the dictator Sukarno, who persecuted writers. And the Left-leaning Pramoedya refused to help these writers because he considered them pawns of the military.
After its successful staging of “Tatlo Pang Kuwento ni Lola Basyang,” Ballet Manila (BM) continues its 18th performance season with the full-length pirate adventure on pointes, “Le Corsaire.”
On any given Saturday, the Amoranto Sports Complex on Roces Avenue, Quezon City, is a hive of activity—with weekend sports enthusiasts and fitness buffs huffing and puffing at its basketball courts, badminton courts, swimming pool, boxing and multipurpose gyms. But Amoranto—which boasts of a velodrome and a 15,000-seat stadium—isn’t just for sports, it’s also a venue for the arts.
Hailed as a rare gathering of three iconic performing artists—Lea Salonga, Cecile Licad and Lisa Macuja-Elizalde—“The Legends and the Classics” will have much-awaited repeat performances this October.
In celebration of the 40th year of Asean-Japan Friendship and Cooperation, a series of performances dubbed “Japanese Fun and Magic: Daikagura, Wazuma and Rakugo” was successfully held in Manila and Davao City for the month of June.
The latest in global fashion, beauty, and culture through a contemporary Filipino perspective.
COPYRIGHT © LIFESTYLE INQUIRER 2022
