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Brava, Lisa Macuja!

By Alwin M. Ignacio, Contributor

10/23/2009

Lisa Macuja (now an Elizalde) was the first Filipino and foreigner to be invited to join the famed Kirov Ballet in the mid-1980s. She graduated at the top of her class from the Leningrad Choreographic Institute, having assimilated the eight-year Agrippina Vaganova dance course, distinguishing herself in just a matter of two years. After establishing herself in the local and international arena as a premier dance artist, she made it her mission to bring ballet to the people, earning herself the moniker “ballerina ng bayan.”

This has been a very special year for Elizalde as she celebrates her silver anniversary in professional ballet. Hers is a life filled with sacrifice and passion. And, as the dancer claims, she did it all for love – of ballet, that is.

“I genuinely love ballet, and that is why after 25 years, I continue to dance,” Lisa relates. “You know, I can stop. I already have the name, the reputation, a successful company. I have two kids, a husband who cares for and loves me, and I don’t have to work for the money. I just love dancing so much that I cannot bear to stop. I know that if I stop, that’s it!

“If I stop now for two or maybe three months, I don’t think I’ll be ever able to go back into dancing form, the way I am dancing now. It has been a genuine love for the ballet and it’s a love affair that has been going on since I was 14 years old when I decided to make it my profession. I was 9 when I started ballet and, of course, I was the headache of my teachers, but that’s all resources and talent. Through the years it has been molded and honed and turned into a skill that you cannot really duplicate overnight,” she shares.

Her stature as prima ballerina did not come easily. She gave her all to achieve it, worked hard for it, gave her sweat, blood and tears, especially at one time when some quarters in the field of dance heavily protested her label.

“Oh that happened a long, long time ago, and it was because of an advertising campaign,” she remembers. “When I first danced Masha in Nutcracker at the age of 19 in the Leningrad Choreographic Institute at that time in St. Petersburg, an article in a Russian newspaper came out and the headline was ‘the Leningrad Choreographic School has just graduated the next prima ballerina of the Philippines’. Basically, it was an acknowledgment that I was prima ballerina material at the time of my graduation. I was labeled prima ballerina of the Philippines. That advertising campaign came a full six years later. At that time, I had already danced as an international guest artist, doing principal roles, like I danced the role of Juliet in 16 performances with the Royal New Zealand all over New Zealand. I danced principal roles with the Singapore Dance Theater. I danced principal roles in six or seven different Russian cities. So I was already doing roles and ballets in different cities, with different companies as prima ballerina. I felt that the title was justified. In fact I was consulted by the advertising agency if they could put the title prima ballerina, and I said ‘yes, sure, we can’ since my credentials were unquestionably of prima ballerina status.”

She elaborates, “Now, if they say that a country can only have one prima ballerina at one time, then that is grossly unfair! Russia is one country and, like, the Bolshoi Ballet has several prima ballerinas; the Marinsky Ballet has several prima ballerinas. You have Galena Olanova, Maya Plisetskaya and Natalia Makarova. You have all these prima ballerinas! Margot Fonteyn was the reigning prima ballerina of England, but there were also many English ballerinas that could be called prima ballerinas. It was very unfair to make it an issue that the Philippines could only have one prima ballerina and that was Maniya Barredo. She was definitely an older dancer than me. She was more experienced than me. She probably had clocked more performances than me at that time. Definitely, since then, I’ve surpassed all of that. I don’t know how many times she had danced Kitri in Don Quixote. But I’ve danced it more than a hundred-something times in all sorts different companies all over the world. So I don’t really have to prove myself. I am 45 years old and I’m still dancing.”

Does she miss her contemporaries? “Well, I do,” she replies quickly. “But they have retired already. Anna Villadolid and Toni Lopez Gonzalez have not danced for a long time. The last time I performed with them on stage was back in 1989. Right now, I can’t deny that I am the oldest dancer in Ballet Manila. Backstage minsan, I cannot relate with what they are talking about, and I think hindi rin sila maka-relate sa akin,” she laughs.

“I am just really fortunate that I can still dance — that I can still dance well after all these years, yung hindi pa ako nakaka-awang tignan. That is a scenario that I don’t ever want to happen. I dread that thought,” she confides.

“I don’t have any regrets, but there are performances that I’d rather forget,” declares Lisa about regretful memories “The first time I walked out from the stage was in Tokyo because I had a wardrobe malfunction. The garter snapped and my boobs came out. So I held on to my costume and walked off stage. After they sewed the costume back on, saka lang ako bumalik. Imagine that, I was playing the good fairy in Pinocchio! How embarrassing! The second one happened very recently because the stage was super so unmanageable, it was very slippery and I was risking injury if I continued to dance. I guess I should have checked the stage before, wrong assumption.”

She carries on, “Wala akong other regrets. Career-wise, their may have been some roles or some confrontations that I would rather forget, but they all happened because I was being prepared for something bigger. They were all there to teach me and make me the artistic director and dancer that I am right now. Even the bad experiences were lessons and they taught me a lot.”

Elizalde is graciousness personified. Even if she recalls and shares embarrassing situations and stories, she remains poised; the identities of her subject matters remain anonymous despite all the wheedling to name names. Her hearty guffaws and cheery aura fill the room.

Recently, the Ballet Manila staged Lisa@25, a ballet extravaganza featuring dance performances, musical numbers, and video images that showcased Lisa’s stellar career – from her days as a student up to the present.

For her silver celebration, the ballerina shares, “I have a five-year plan. Eventually, there will be Lisa@30, and I’ll be a golden girl by that time. There are plans like a farewell to the stage, tutoo nang retirement. However, I cannot really say if it’s going to be at the end of this five-year plan or not.”

She reveals her most immediate plans. “I do plan to come up with an original Filipino production, at least once a year. Expose the audience to a full-length classical ballet, at least once a year also. I grew up in the classics and a ballet company’s strength is built with the classics. But there is an innovation that I cannot deny I want to do.

“On a personal level, I still have several roles that I wanted to dance because I have not danced them yet like the role of Frigia in Spartacus, since it’s a very dramatic role. I really want to learn modern and contemporary ballets as well.”

Ever passionate, Lisa bares her heart. “For Ballet Manila, I would like my company to perform more and more to live music, less to recording. It spells a big difference for the dancers and the audiences. There is that unpredictability of how a conductor is going to play, the combination of looking at the conductor and listening to the music and dancing simultaneously. I want more international and local tours. I really want to transport this higher art form to the provinces and abroad.

“I still want more dancers. It is always nice to have more dancers, more young dancers to train. Right now we are 48 and sometimes I end up not having enough dancers for the performances or the other way around, having more male than female dancers so I have to struggle with the female dancers.

“Lastly, I love to able to collaborate with such artists like Cecile Licad, Lea Salonga, especially Gary Valenciano, crush ko siya nung bata ako. A lot of these performers are world-class, and I know collaborating with them would make my company, myself as a dancer and as a performer and as a director, grow as overall artists,” she concludes.