LISA MACUJA ELIZALDE :IT TAKES GUTS TO BEA BALLET DANCER
It takes guts and a lot of courage to put on a costume, go on stage, and move,” says Ballet Manila visionary and celebrated prima ballerina, Lisa Macuja-Elizalde.
It is the evening after the final competition of the Asian Grand Prix 2017, which was held during the week of Aug. 7 to 12 at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts.
We are at the presidential suite of the Island Shangri-La in Hong Kong, where Lisa is hosting dinner for the Philippine contingent. Tomorrow, the winners will be announced and they will perform at the Asian Grand Prix Winners’ Gala together with international guest dancers and past grand prix winners and stars from the Kremlin Ballet Russia, Ballet Manila Philippines, and Hong Kong Ballet.
“There was a lot of hard work, a lot of preparation involved for our participation, and we are very proud and happy about the very good result,” Lisa says. “I just feel that tonight, it’s time to celebrate.”
Now in its 7th year, Asian Grand Prix International Ballet Competition (AGP), which was established in 2011, is an annual competition for young dancers aged 7 to 19.
“The aim is to recognize potential and inspire excellence,” AGP managing director Virginia de Blank, explains. “Talented dancers receive awards and scholarship opportunities to further their dance education.”
This is the fifth time that Ballet Manila (BM) has brought in a delegation to the Asian Grand Prix. “The competition gives our young dancers the exposure and a training ground to improve in their craft,” Lisa noted. “It celebrates the Asian classical ballet dancer. I believe we have come unto our own.”
For the second consecutive year, BM founder and artistic director, Lisa Macuja-Elizalde was invited to be a pre-competitive jury member. New elements were added to the competition this year. Besides performing the solo variation on stage, candidates were required to take classical ballet and contemporary dance classes during the week, with the jury observing. They assigned the variations per level, so the variations were more age appropriate and more varied. It was down to two rounds in the competition, elimination and then the final round.
“AGP is not just a competition. It is really an education platform,” AGP chairman So Hon Wah explains at the press conference. “The young student and talented dancer gets the experience and learn from the others. Experts share their knowledge with them. Our jury observe their attitude and their ability to learn. We watch their performance, not only on stage but also in class. We want to see how they improve and how they grow.”
This year, AGP drew over 340 contestants representing various ballet schools in 15 countries worldwide. Ballet Manila, which subscribes to the rigorous Russian (Vaganova) method of classical ballet, was represented by twelve young dancers, five of whom are scholars of Project Ballet Futures (PBF). Started in 2008,
Lisa Macuja-Elizalde says, ‘My dream is for ballet tickets to be released on Ticketworld, and three hours later they’re sold out, like the concerts of Madonna. It happens in Europe, it can happen here.’
PBF is a dance scholarship program that provides free ballet education to public elementary and high school students.
“Even before Ballet Manila, which we established in 1995, I was already giving free classes to young girls and boys in the little porch at our house in Quezon City,” Lisa recalls. With increasing public support, PBF “can send more children from the streets to the stage and on to a brighter future.”
A Project Ballet Futures scholar, Brian Sevilla, won the silver medal in this year’s Asian Grand Prix. He was given scholarships from the Elmhurst Ballet School and the Houston Ballet Academy as well as the Harlequin Floor Prize for support in travel expenses.
Formerly a hip-hop dancer at the Juan Sumulong Elementary School in Pasay, he was encouraged by his teacher to audition at BM where he was accepted five years ago. He is now 15 years old.
Despite suffering a leg sprain, Brian gave a valiant performance of the Franz variation from Coppelia as finalist in the Junior B division. “My mind was not on winning,” he said. “I just wanted to give my best.” He remembered the advice of his mentor, Osias ‘Shaz’ Barroso, coartistic director of Ballet Manila: “Don’t give up, no matter what happens. If you don’t give up, there’s a better chance that you will get what you want.”
Joshua Enciso, 17 years old, who performed the Solor variation from La Bayadere, won fifth place and the Sansha Award. He commutes daily after school from Muntinlupa, to attend his classes at Ballet Manila in Pasay, from 6 to 9 p.m. He does not mind the sacrifice, he says, since he loves what he is doing.
Also making it to the Finals round in the senior division was Marinette Franco who performed the Raymonda Tableau variation. Marinette can see herself teaching ballet someday. “My goal is to be able to repay all the people who helped me become who I am, in some way that they will feel that they are part of my success and I am thankful for that,” she says.
Shaira May Comeros, the daughter of BM’s costume maker, was also a finalist in the senior division, performing the Aurora variation from Act 3 of Sleeping
Beauty. When performing on stage, “I just think that this is it,” she says. “This is what I prepared for so many months. I just have a few minutes to enjoy it.”
“I always tell them just to be themselves and to be in the moment, because the moment will not come back,” Shaz says.
Of the 12 dancers from Ballet Manila, eight made it to the final round, among them Loraine Gaile Jariega (11 years old) and Jos David Andes (13), as well as Elyssabeth Apilado (15) and Alvin Dictado (16), both Project Ballet Futures scholars.
Completing the contingent who competed in the selection round were BM trainees Monique Valera, Fiona de los Santos, Ashley Salonga, and John Carl Concepcion, also a Project Ballet Futures scholar.
The top honor of the 2017 Asian Grand Prix Award was shared by Hyeji Kang of South Korea and Rench Soriano of the Philippines, who both competed in the Junior B division.
“What I would tell the kids that didn’t make it to the finals, the main thing is, you had a goal you set for yourself, you worked hard for it, you represented our country well, you’ve improved as dancers. Every day is a learning experience,” Lisa says. “For me, what happens during a competition and the results of a competition is not more important than what you do after the competition for yourself. There are some who would give up after a competition and there will be some who will work even harder and learn from the experience.”
Katherine Barkman, Ballet Manila principal dancer, was only 18 when she won the Asian Grand Prix award in 2015. “It was a big transition in my life to move to the Philippines,” she relates. She had trained extensively with Russia pedagogue, Nadia Pavlenko, since she was 14 in the US. Although she had already competed and won in many regional and international competitions, still “I felt so much pressure on my shoulders, until I stepped on stage. And then I realized that it wasn’t about anything else except doing what I was supposed to do. It was one of the first times I competed when I did not feel the need to be perfect. I just felt the need to do what I was put on the earth to do, and we all have that. We all have something in our lives that just makes us happy and we don’t know why, and that happiness, it has to be shared.”
“My goal is to be an international artist who is able to positively affect lives through my dancing,” Katherine says. “Being with Ballet Manila, it’s more than ballet. It’s not just dancers who are in it for themselves. It’s a place where dance becomes a way of life, and a source of life for people. I’m just so grateful God has brought me to this place, with someone like Lisa who is not only a coach in the studio but also a model of a woman with such courage and poise, and such a generous heart.”
Katherine performed the Sleeping Beauty Grand Pas de Deux with Ballet Manila guest artist and principal dancer of the Marinsky Theatre Primorsky Stage, Joseph Phillips, at the Asian Grand Prix Winners’ Gala in Hong Kong. She is Ibong Adarna in the world premiere of the Philippine classic rendered in ballet, which opened Ballet Manila’s 22nd season in Manila in August.
“I think it’s something that should not be missed by anyone,” Lisa says. “I feel that I also need to make an appeal to people to try and buy their tickets earlier, and maybe avail of subscriptions. My dream is for tickets to be released on Ticketworld, and three hours later they’re sold out, like the concerts of Madonna. It happens in Europe, it can happen here.”
Lisa never took her eyes off Ballet Manila’s ultimate goal, “to bring ballet to the people and the people to the ballet.” She says, “I feel Ballet Manila, the company and the school is my greatest legacy and my greatest achievement. It’s still a work in progress that I hope to be able to continue to be a huge part of for a long, long time.”