Healing Through Art: Ilonggo Artistes Perform for PDLs

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By John Anthony S. Estolloso

The evening of June 15 witnessed the Marian Theatre of Saint Paul University bathed in color, light, movement, and sound: playing host to the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) Regional Office VI’s Project Paghilom, the theatre was the venue for an exquisite gala of music and ballet, showcasing the talents of Ilonggo artistes in a benefit concert for persons deprived of liberty.

In common usage, paghilom translates to ‘healing’. Framed in the context of what that evening had to offer onstage, the idea elevates the appreciation of the arts as instruments of rehabilitation and transformation.

The concert was a composite of music, song, and dance. Featuring musicians from the University of San Agustin’s Conservatory of Music and dancers from the Claravall-Gonzales School of Classical Ballet, with representative performers from the BJMP’s regional office, the production was an artistic success, exceeding this writer’s expectations about the performance bill: beyond a mere hodgepodge of sideshows, the concert was a profoundly heartfelt exhibition of classical music and ballet as well as tasteful deliveries of pop selections.

Seated on the keyboard for most of that evening was Mr. Gerardo Vicente Muyuela, the Academic Supervisor of the conservatory. His performance gave further credence of him as seasoned pianist and accompanist, wise on the ways of song and stage. Mr. Muyuela’s interpretations of the minuet from Beethoven’s 12^th piano sonata and of Chopin’s waltzes (E-flat Major and A Minor) were lyrical without losing the compositions’ whimsy or melancholy, even as they were played with verve and vigor to complement the sinuous grace of the ballerinas. Poignant as well was his Rachmaninoff’s 18^th variation of Paganini’s caprice.

The ballet troupe of Ms. Claravall-Gonzales’ school was on top form. Most prominent were the many pas de deux passionately danced to classical and pop arrangements. The Kettentanz from Strauss’ Annen-Polka was a delight to behold. Accompanied by Mr. Muyuela on the keyboard, Pachelbel’s Canon in D became a prayerful antiphon delivered through dance.

The evening was replete with songs. Bea Krisna Fernandez’s powerful soprano belted out Tuwing Umuulan; Amabelle Pamocol-Castro’s tremulous bel canto lent a languid tenderness to Nasaan ang Aking Puso. Tenor Jomel Garcia’s Lagi Kitang Naalala oozed with nostalgia and longing, the rich timbre of his voice giving life to the poignant lyrics. And dare I add that Jail Superintendent Maricon Castidad-Tuluyan’s singing was a revelation that night?

In the final segment of the programme, Fr. Jonas Mejares regaled the audience with his moving rendition of Maging Sino Ka Man – with a most participative audience lending extra voices in the singing – and a powerfully delivered This is the Moment (from Jekyll and Hyde), his booming baritone voice filling the theatre with heroic flair. Contrasting this thunderous delivery of the Broadway number was Garcia and Fernandez’s All I Ask of You, sung with much romance and fervor between the notes. Yves Adrian Gabasa’s Out of Roads was enfleshed by a danseuse’s pas seul, reinterpreting through dance the conversions which happen behind and beyond bars.

Closing the show was an arrangement of Stephen Schwartz’s When You Believe (from Prince of Egypt), sung by four voices and interpreted through dance by the corps de ballet: a truly stirring and spectacular finale for the evening!

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Truly yours have had the privilege of reviewing past performances of Fernandez, Gabasa, Garcia, and Pamocol-Castro; I have witnessed Mr. Muyuela’s virtuosity on the piano, time and again. Also, I have had the honor to write – and recite – poetry to accompany Ms. Claravall-Gonzales’ dance troupe on certain occasions – and I would not dispute the talent nor the dedication that these people apply to their art. And truly, these artistes remain the stellar jewels of song and music in this city.

But beyond their artistry, it is worth reflecting about the impact of that evening’s performance to persons deprived of liberty: more than raising funds for their livelihoods, it is a reminder to both audience and performer, of the redeeming power of art. It might as well be an extrapolation of Pablo Picasso’s statement, that if Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life, then it could be the salve to heal the woundedness of our beings.

(The writer is a language and literature teacher in one of the private schools in the city. The photos are from Jose Taton, Jr.)