2000 Gawad Alab ng Haraya Awardee

(Alab ng Haraya Awards)

Douglas Nierras has more than two decades of involvement in dance through choreography, pedagogy, and production, and those decades have found Nierras infusing his cosmopolitan techniques with the polarities of the Filipino experience — its tragic melodrama and surprising comic twists as well as its pious religiosity and bacchanalian energy.

In his landmark "Metanoia", Douglas Nierras collaborates with maestro Ryan Cayabyab to create a thirty-four minute ballet set to the five general parts of the Latin Mass — the Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei. Juxtaposed against such notions as physical realization, sensual pleasure and excess, confession and repentance, and cleansing and redemption is Nierras’ metaphor of "the wages of sin." His chosen title encapsulates well the theme of the production: it is Greek for "conversion" or "change of heart."

Through imaginative choreography, Nierras takes us on a journey from the beginning, the very point of creation, through to the end, the singular moment of return to the light. He allows us to observe man as he slowly grows in stature, explores the earth, and discovers the sensuality and seduction of its pleasures. He casts no shadows as man succumbs to temptation and falls into disgrace. Moreover, he offers no apologies as he shows man repenting and crying out to God after realizing his folly.

His message augurs a blessed conclusion: the dancers cast off their masks and shrouds and sprout wings, as if to fearlessly signify that in the end, light triumphs over all the excesses of the physical and material world. 

Such unabashed declaration prompts critic Marge Enriquez to say: "… this choreographer has evolved into one who tackles deep, spiritual themes, interpreting them in a dramatic way. Nobody has ever gone this far to push modern Philippine dance to greater heights."

Gawad Alab ng Haraya at Dangal ng Haraya Guidelines