audiences everywhere

thesis journal entry # 7

I discovered last night that we were also supposed to dance in Gen San. But then the bombs went off and we were supposed to travel to Gen San from Davao by bus, so the Gen San trip was nixed. I'm not sure if the Gen San performance was part of the National Arts Month program or just an extra thing we're doing because we're already here anyway.

We're not dancing today because we were informed by the organizers that the stage at today's venue was not conducive for dancing. So we manage to get Kit and Alvin to simplify their steps for Tzigane and Tiffany to do an improv to Phantom of the Opera (the only other CD any of us brought that wasn't hiphop) while the rest of us can shop (the venue of today's show is a mall).
Then, we get there to discover that the stage is like the usual stage malls set up (those black platforms they piece together) and we've danced on those. But the organizers had already been convinced that we don't have to dance today, and a lot of the other dancers already had their minds set to not dancing. So Kit and Alvin did Tzigane and Tiffany did her improv and the audience at the Davao mall were okay with that (I should know because I was sitting in the audience during the show, watching them as much as I was watching the show itself).

Actually, I've been trying to figure out if there are differences between audiences from different places and it's strange that there seems to be similar audience reactions whether you're from the city, from the north or from the south, which makes you think it's the same audience pretty much anywhere. They clap exuberantly when they see the impressive-looking overhead lifts and multiple turns. Moreover, they all generally like what they see. Ballet doesn't bore them, as they're always attentive and appreciative.

So it's not expected for these people to come to CCP to watch our season shows, but it doesn't mean that the Filipino people find ballet to be an alien art form, like I was proposing in defense of the significance of my thesis topic. Perhaps it's just easier for them to catch ballet when they go to a mall. Everyone knows Filipinos love the mall.