A national treasure, with a Senate bill submitted to declare her a National Artist, Lisa Macuja-Elizalde exemplifies the Filipina achiever. After more than 30 seasons, however, Lisa has officially retired as a full-time ballerina. But as the artistic director of her own Ballet Manila, she is still busy steering her company toward its 20th season, with the theme titled “From Page to Stage.”
The stories to be told on toes at the Aliw Theater are Severino Reyes’s Tatlong Kuwento ni Lola Basyang on August 21, 22, 28 and 29 at 8 pm, and August 23 and 30 at 3 pm, with music by Ryan Cayabyab and Joey Ayala; Nashville Ballet USA artistic Director Paul Vasterling’s Romeo & Juliet on October 2 and 3 at 8 pm and October 4 at 3 pm; Ballet Manila Coartistic Director Osias Barroso’s Pinocchio on November 27 and 28, December 4 and 5 at 8 pm and November 29 and December 6 at 3 pm. Slated for next year are Rebel by London-based choreographer Martin Lawrance of the Richard Alston Dance Company, in collaboration with Floy Quintos and Gerard Salonga, on February 19, 20, 26 and 27, 2016, at 8 pm and February 21 and 28, 2016 at 3 pm; and Ballet Silicon Valley USA Executive director Alan Hineline’s Hansel & Gretel on January 29 and 30, 2016, at 7 pm and January 31, 2016, at 3 pm.
“I don’t choose the productions by myself. I have a team. We consult, and most of the restagings we do only after at least a rest period of two years, like Tatlong Kwento ni Lola Basyang was last done in 2012,” Lisa shared at the media launch of the new season. “The original ballets, sometimes I have people recommend it to me to choreograph, sometimes I just have an idea, like I want to do it. Rebel was an idea that I wanted to pursue for the longest time even before Tatlong Kwento ni Lola Basyang.”
As artistic director, Lisa strikes a conscious balance between mounting foreign and local productions. “I want to present both local and international choreographers, choreographies and storylines,” she said. “What I enjoy about being an independent company is that I have the freedom to plan and program everything without being answerable to anyone, not to sponsors or a board of trustees. Or the government. You know how it is—the government gives you a grant, but the production has to be Filipino. I’m not saying it’s not good. It’s good! But when you regulate it too much, it stifles artistry.”
The greatest challenge, Lisa emphasized, is finding that balance: “You don’t want a season that’s too serious, too heavy on the dancers that they’d end up having injuries. You don’t want a season that’s all tragedy. You want a season that appeals to all audiences. I think it’s so hard to market a season because it’s not in our culture to buy a season subscription. It’s not in our culture to buy a ticket to a show that’s happening next year—unless, it’s Madonna. Sadly, it’s not in our culture to go to a live-theater performance. We would rather go to the mall, to the movies, out of town in the weekends. But people will buy tickets to watch a foreign act. Ang sakit, ‘no?”
Though she’s been trained at the famed Kirov Ballet (officially known as the Mariinsky Ballet, the parent company of the Vaganova Ballet Academy), Lisa doesn’t believe local ballet will be at par with the global scene. “Everything is a journey, it’s not a fixed destination. Philippine ballet will always be growing, evolving. What I would like to see Philippine ballet eventually do, first of all, is make the industry something a lot of dancers and dance students will aspire to become a professional in. Right now, a lot of ballet students are just in it as a hobby, as an extracurricular activity, something that they don’t see themselves doing as a profession. You have Filipino professional dancers who make the Filipino ballet companies a pit stop on their way to somewhere else, whether it’s in Hamburg, the US, or Hong Kong Disneyland or a cruise ship. I would love to see that time when you have dancers that stay in the company for 20 years and eventually grow old with the company, so we keep our traditions, we keep our talent, we don’t lose them. And I would also love it when our audience is educated enough and trained enough that they know you’re supposed to clap during the curtain call. I notice as performer, I do a final pose, bam! Clap! Clap! Clap! But once I move to bow—silence. I want to go, ‘People, I’m bowing. This is the time when you’re supposed to clap!’” Lisa can only laugh at our ignorance.
“I dream of the time when our audience gives our artists numerous curtain calls, when all the ballets are performed to live music. That’s the way the ballets are supposed to be, danced to live music. I dream of the time when people are educated enough and have the resources to stop asking for complimentary tickets.” She let out a big laugh again.
Lisa turns serious when she talks about her company: “I’m proud to say that my Ballet Manila dancers can live by his or her profession. They are the breadwinners of their families. They’re able to send their kids to school. It’s one of the reasons I’m able to keep my dancers for longer periods of time. Mas maliit ang turnover namin. We give benefits, insurance, and retirement and pension plans. We also take care of our dancers’ hospital bills.
“Not all ballet companies have resources. Just having this beautiful venue, the Aliw Theater, it’s ours. I mean the CCP (Cultural Center of the Philippines) has to be shared by nine resident companies and all the foreign productions that come in. I feel for the artistic directors of both Ballet Philippines and Philippine Ballet Theater—they can’t plan their season well because they don’t know if they’re going to have a theater, because suddenly Beauty and the Beast might come in, or Phantom of the Opera or Miss Saigon, and then you don’t have a venue.”
Now that she’s no longer dancing full time, what’s her fitness regimen like?
“I start my day by power walking around my garden, a little bit of yoga. And usually I teach, and that requires demonstration and activity. Sometimes I do my own ballet workout when I have the time and the inclination to. But usually I just go with the flow. I swim. With diet, I think I’ve changed in the portions that I eat. Smaller. Before when I was dancing, I could eat anything in any proportion. When you come from burning 5,000 calories a day to 2,000, of course there will be a big change in your body.”
What would make her dance again?
“Actually I’m dancing again this season but in cameo roles, like I’m doing Lady Capulet in Romeo and Juliet, Ate Lisa and alternating with Lola Basyang, and a cameo role in Rebel in the beginning. You have to realize I’m recovering from hip surgery and I’ve been officially retired for the last seven months. Maybe if I miss it enough to actually say, OK, I’m going to plan a comeback performance, we’re going to announce that if and when—but it’s a big if first, rather than when.”
Lisa is 50, but you wouldn’t know it from her glowing porcelain skin, agility, litheness and grace. “I’m old! I’m really old for a ballet dancer! Some people don’t realize it, but I am.” But, Margot Fontaine retired at 60-plus, someone reminded her. “But, she never lifted her legs higher than 45 degrees. She lived at a time when ballet dancing was not that athletic. Now, it’s almost like a sport, like gymnastics. It’s how fast you turn, the number of turns, how high your legs are, how high you jump. The art itself has evolved. Now you have additional classes in modern contemporary jazz, improvisation, yoga, gyrotonics, weight training, flexibility, a whole class devoted to stretching. Before, it was just ballet technique class!”
There hasn’t been a Filipino ballerina that has risen to the status Lisa has achieved. Why so?
“Success is a combination of many things. It’s not just talent. It’s not just hard work. A lot of it is opportunity, education maybe. The overall packaging. For me, I believe that I’ve just been dancing for the longest time, longer than many other Filipino dancers. I started professional aspirations at 14. I started training as a hobby at 8, then I started doing lessons every day at 14. I left for Russia at 18. Russia was still a closed door. It was still Communist. But now, you have so many foreign dancers at these Russian companies, but at that time I was the only one there!
“So it’s a combination of the uniqueness of my experience, but also I was very lucky that I had a long career and my body did not give up on me. I think I was also fortunate that I was a dancing artistic director, because as such you can actually plan your own season and how you can present yourself as a dancer. You can schedule things, and I think that contributed to prolonging my career. I’m also very lucky that I don’t have to worry about the resources of the company, where to get them from, fully supported that we are by our patron—who is my husband (Fred J. Elizalde).
“But you know, in the 17th to 19th centuries, the arts have always been supported and patronized by royalty, and by rich patrons that make it possible for artists to practice their art. So, again, that’s just part of how everything fell into place. And I think also, my personality. It’s just different also from other artists. Well, I’m kind of sometimes like to put myself in my mouth also the way Lea Salonga sometimes does.”