page_title: La Luna Roja
section_title: 2017 staging
hierarchical_section_title: La Luna Roja / Performance / 2017 staging
caption_attribution_description: English: Aydanamara and her sister before the curse takes hold (La Luna Roja 2017)
context_page_description: La Luna Roja is the first full length flamenco ballet ever performed on the Philippine stage. An offering by the Philippine flamenco foundation, Fundacion Centro Flamenco, the ballet is an original work created by Emma Estrada based on a story written by her. Estrada describes writing the tale with an eye towards creating a flamenco ballet, labelling La Luna Roja as flamenco's twist on the traditional ballet. While ballets such as The Sleeping Beauty are traditionally mediums of telling a story, Flamenco is more often performed without a specific story. La Luna Roja blends the concept of flamenco and ballet together. La Luna Roja is directed by Leo Rialp, the lauded movie and stage director and choreographed by Estrada, as its artistic director. The 2017 staging of the ballet also included choreography by acclaimed flamenco artist Javier Martos. The ballet has been described as a "dark fairytale... told through the passionate and fiery art form that is flamenco."
context_section_description: La Luna Roja was finally presented in its entirety in November 2017. Together with Leo Rialp, who worked with Estrada on the ballet's 2012 production, Estrada decided to collaborate with Spanish flamenco artists for the full length version of the ballet. Invited to perform were flamenco guitarists Rubén Campos-Campos and Alejandro Alcaraz, percussionist José Cortes, and singer Sergio Gómez. Estrada also collaborated with Javier Martos, a renowned flamenco artist and a professor of the famed flamenco school Carmen de las Cuevas (Granada). Martos not only played La Luna Roja's main protagonist Jamil but choreographed several of the dances for the ballet.
  Now free of the time constraints of the 2012 performance, the ballet freely delved into the origin of the curse, the volatile relationship between the Sorceress and the villagers, the village's revenge and the death of the sorceress's son, the naive Adrian, whose death gave rise to the curse. In this staging of La Luna Roja, Estrada took another  step away from the traditional fairy tale ending. The play remains similar at heart to the first iteration, but the curse is more poignant. It looks at darker themes such as betrayal and suicide. It biggest departure from the first ballet though was the finale. There is not happy ending waiting for Jamil, no new love to wash away his first loss. Instead of the typical fairytale ending where the hero and heroine come out unscathed, Jamil is forced to contend with the loss of Alba, dancing with nothing more than her memories. The ending to the 2017 ballet is bittersweet, without the comfort of the happy ending of the first staging.
  Since this was the first foray of the Flamenco ballet on to the Philippine stage Emma Estrada decided to make the ballet a two night only event, where the ballet debuted to a full house at the RCBC Theatre.
caption: The cursed sisters dance (La Luna Roja 2017)
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