Ballet Philippines to Premiere Original Filipino Ballet ‘Paglalakbay: The Journey of the Sea People’ This April

Ballet Philippines to Premiere Original Filipino Ballet ‘Paglalakbay: The Journey of the Sea People’ This April

Ballet Philippines (BP) is set to premiere Paglalakbay: The Journey of the Sea People, a full-length original Filipino ballet, this April at the Theatre at Solaire.

The company says the show is “a celebration of heritage and a powerful statement of where the company is headed — championing local narratives on the classical stage.”

Choreographed by BP Artistic Director Mikhail Martynyuk, with a libretto by Sheree Chua, the ballet is inspired by the Austronesian Migration and tells the story of the Sea People and their epic paglalakbay (journey) to their ancestral homeland in Batanes, the northernmost islands of the Philippines. The musical score is composed by Ronald Vincenzo Khaw de Leon, blending traditional beats of the Kalusan with the strong rhythmic foundations of ballet.

“Migration is often framed as displacement, but my mother showed me that movement can also be expansion, a widening of self without losing origin. In her life, I witnessed resilience, adaptability, and a deep, unshakeable sense of identity. Those same qualities underpin the Austronesian Migration story that informs this work,” says Chua. “My mother is the emotional architecture of the piece. Through her, I understood that heritage is not static — it breathes, shifts, evolves — yet remains anchored in something internal and enduring. This ballet becomes both historical and intimate: a large-scale narrative of seafaring peoples, and a personal tribute to the woman who first taught me how to move through the world.”

While classical technique forms the skeleton of the performance, the history of the Sea People and the Austronesian Migration shape its distinct choreography.

“I rely on vertical alignment, purity of line, variation in form — pas de deux, ensemble, and solo work. However, academic technique is a form, not a style,” says Martynyuk. “Batanes is wind, rocks, and ocean. As the scenery changes, the quality of movement changes as well. In Paglalakbay, choreographic language becomes the main narrator: A low center of gravity, steady in the wind; steps are wide and grounded, moving against resistance; the body tilts forward, always in dialogue with the elements; the hands are not decorative, but functional, like a sailor’s. All of this makes the choreography more complex, yet at the same time, clear and accessible to the audience.”

Movement also played a central role in the production design.

“We wanted the stage design to emulate the key visuals and movement of the Batanes landscape — waves crashing on the shore, jagged rock beaches, wild winds hitting the grass eroding soil from cliffs,” says Leeroy New, the ballet’s production designer. “When I visited Batanes with my assistant designer, Arvie Santos, we experienced firsthand the primal energy of the terrain, we heard the language and stories from the locals, and this only further stressed our responsibility to approximate the best we could that experience for our audiences. To share a glimpse of what remains of our early architectures, lifestyles, and crafts.”

“Ending our 56th Season with Paglalakbay was a bold investment for the company. It meant the company would spend time on cultural immersion and dialogues with the Sea People’s elders and children,” says Kathleen Liechtenstein, BP President. “It reflects our belief that local indigenous stories deserve the grand scale and artistic rigor of the classical stage. We hope audiences leave with a deeper appreciation of the Sea People’s journey — the massive migration of the Austronesian language-speaking people in 3000 BCE — and a renewed sense of pride in Filipino identity. Because our stories are epic, resilient, profoundly human, and universally interconnected.”

Paglalakbay: The Journey of the Sea People runs on April 10 at 8 PM and on April 11 and 12 at 2 PM and 7 PM at the Theatre at Solaire.

Tickets are P4,017 (lower orchestra center), P3,347.50 (lower orchestra side), P2,410.20 (upper orchestra center and upper orchestra side), P2,008.50 (Premium Gold center and Premium Gold sides), P1,071.20 (upper balcony center and upper balcony sides), and P803.40 (upper balcony center and upper balcony sides), available via TicketWorld.