A bigger and better Ballet Manila

Philippines' Prima Ballerina Lisa Macuja-Elizalde

In the next three or four years, prima Ballerina Lisa Macuja-Elizalde will just watch her beloved company, Ballet Manila (BM) from the sidelines.

“My major, major assignment as artistic director of Ballet Manila is to prepare the company and its 53 dancers to be on their own,” Macuja proudly announced at a press conference at the Makati Shangri-La Hotel. “I will just be leading, teaching and coaching them the way I’m doing [right] now, but without being the principal dancer on stage.”

The 47-year-old ballet prodigy believes that it is important for “Ballet Manila to live on and prosper as Ballet Manila,” and not as “Lisa Macuja-Elizalde’s ballet company.”

To do so, she is taking BM on a tour of London, Ireland, Singapore, Indonesia and Korea for the 2011 to 2012 performing season, in order to expose the dancers to an international audience. The company’s official calendar includes the “East Meets West” tour in London from June 30 to July 2, and in Ireland from July 4 to 6; “Ballet Under the Stars” in Singapore from July 15 to 17; the “5th World Gyeongju Culture Expo 2011” from September 4 to 11, and the “Andong International Mask Festival” from September 30 to October 9 in Korea; and lastly “Ballet Manila and Ballet Indonesia” in Indonesia from January 27 to 29, 2012.

Classical ballet foundation

Lisa with Ballet Manila's best dancers,
Rudy de Dios and Jennifer Olayvar

It is not known to many that at this stage, Ballet Manila’s dancers can already divide themselves into separate groups and perform in different venues without Macuja as principal ballerina.

Over the years, Macuja is proud to have trained highly skilled ballerinas, owing to the foundation of classical ballet. Together with co-artistic director and former dance partner Osias Barossa, she starts everyone off on the Russian Vaganova technique.

“I think with the Russian Vaganova technique, we properly train the dancers to tackle any form of ballet, whether it is contemporary dance, modern ballet or Filipino ethnic ballet,” Macuja explained. She further believes that it is this particular foundation that distinguishes BM from other ballet companies.

Last hurrahs

Now that Macuja has fully recovered from chronic tendonitis in both her ankles (she underwent surgery in December 2010), she is all set to perform the last full dances her favorite classics for the season.

In October, she will take on her final performance of Swan Lake as the twins Odette/Odile, to be followed in 2012 with her final bow as Kitri for Don Quixote.

The prima ballerina also plans to do the The Nutcracker, Romeo and Juliet, and Giselle before permanently going back stage.

Macuja confessed though that she will definitely find it painful to say goodbye to these full length classics, and will miss the feeling of being able to grow as a character from one act to the next.

Lisa shares Ballet Manila's busy season

Acceptance

Dancing for almost three decades now, Macuja admitted that she envies her current crop of dancers whose bodies are younger, jump higher and spin faster.

She knows she can never go back to her 20-year-old physique, even if she gives “200 percent” in training. “Tomorrow, ganun pa rin, mas mataas pa rin ang talon nila kaysa sa akin [it will be the same tomorrow, the younger dancers will still jump higher than I do],” she laughed. “I cannot jump as high as them anymore, ever. And that kind of acceptance is so important to me.”

But the prima ballerina still has something the younger generations of dancers don’t have. She has wisdom, experience and an illustrious reputation gained through sheer hard work throughout the years. Despite her age, it is certain that any performance by Lisa Macuja-Elizalde will draw in the crowds.

“It’s just what a live performance brings,” she humbly remarked. “A painter leaves behind a piece of work that can be hung on a wall—100 years from now, we will still be marveling at Leonardo da Vinci’s ‘Mona Lisa.’ But a performing artist leaves behind a memory of the performance where audiences see the sweat, the blood, the human machine that was pushed to the limit to do something very athletic and at the same time very artistic. Iba yon, hindi na yon mauulit [It’s irreplaceable].”

*First published for The Manila Times. Read here. Photos are mine.