When dance icon Lisa Macuja Elizalde marks her birthday, it is never with jewels or parties, but with ballet. “We just celebrate with a quiet dinner with the family and then the performances,” she tells TheDiarist.ph.
Years ago, she told her husband, media baron and dance patron Fred Elizalde, not to bother with luxuries. “I just want a live orchestra for one of our performances.”
That wish has become a tradition. Every first week of October, Ballet Manila presents what the company fondly calls the “birthday ballet.” It’s a production with a larger budget, whether for a new work with fresh costumes and choreography or a restaged classic with the rare luxury of live orchestra accompaniment.
Florante at Laura cast, from left: Mark Sumaylo as Sultan Ali Adab, Stephanie Santiago as Flerida, Noah Esplana as Aladin, Abigail Oliveiro as Laura, Joshua Enciso as Florante and Romeo Peralta as Adolfo
This year, on October 3, Lisa turns 61 with the restaging of Florante at Laura at Aliw Theater. The company premiered it last year to mark her milestone 60th birthday, presenting Francisco Balagtas’ revered epic poem— required reading for generations of students—in dance form.
The Orchestra of Filipino Youth under the baton of Maestro Toma Cayabyab
The ballet team carries a distinguished pedigree. The libretto was written by poet and academic Dr. Michael Coroza, who also worked closely with choreographers Gerardo Francisco and Martin Lawrance. National Artist for Music Ryan Cayabyab did the original score, calling it his legacy piece. (He waived his composer’s fee but asked to be paid for the arrangement.) Production designer Mio Infante created the sets, while every performance is accompanied by the Orchestra of the Filipino Youth.
Written in the early 19th century, Florante at Laura tells of a hero’s trials in love and war. Its characters and events are widely read as allegories of the Filipino experience under colonial rule, touching on themes of discrimination and the struggle between good and evil.
Cayabyab’s colossal score—sweeping and cinematic, in the style of epic Hollywood films — gives it added power onstage.
The conflict between Aladin (Noah Esplana) and Sultan Ali Adab (Mark Sumaylo) over Flerida (Stephanie Santiago) unfolds in a tumultuous pas de trois.
Original cast members Joshua Enciso and Abigail Oliveiro reprise the title roles of Florante and Laura, with Noah Esplana as the noble Persian Prince Aladin, Stephanie Santiago as the strong-willed Flerida, Mark Sumaylo as the tyrannical Sultan Ali-Adab, Romeo Peralta as the scheming Adolfo, and John Balagot as the Persian General Osmalik.
New to the lineup are soloist Rafael Perez and company artist Shamira Drapete, who debut as alternate leads Florante, the protagonist Christian knight, and Albanian Princess Laura, alongside BM principal Jessica Pearl Dames as Flerida.
For Lisa, as BM’s artistic director/CEO, it is less a personal celebration than a gift to the audience. Her birthday, Lisa says, is the perfect excuse to give ballet its fullest possible expression through live orchestra, original music, and a story that kindles Filipino pride.
Her birthdays with Fred Elizalde have always been special. In 2000, he built the Star Theater and two years later the larger-capacity Aliw Theater for Ballet Manila. A decade earlier, Lisa had given her swan song in Gold, a gala on Oct. 3, 2014, for her 50th birthday. The program featured the UP Madrigal Singers performing between her segments of Sleeping Beauty and Romeo and Juliet, accompanied by the ABS-CBN Philharmonic Orchestra.
A fire struck Aliw Theater on the eve of her birthday in 2019. Months later, the pandemic shut down the world.
What seemed like a blow turned into opportunity. Ballet Manila migrated online, drawing students not only from across the Philippines but also from abroad. Principal dancers and soloists demonstrated exercises while Lisa taught. She began forging ties with major Asian schools that soon invited Ballet Manila to perform with them.
Tours followed in Malaysia, Taiwan and Indonesia, with her Princess series selling out houses. She continues to be sought after for private coaching, conducted via Zoom, for international dancers.
Meanwhile, the Aliw Theater underwent retrofitting and reopened in 2022 with upgraded facilities.
The fateful encounter of Aladin (Noah Esplana) and Florante (Joshua Enciso)
Two years after she retired from dancing, she found a new calling in choreography. Her first full-length work, Cinderella, premiered during the 2016 Christmas season to popular and critical acclaim and sold-out houses. “I found a second life on stage by becoming a ballet creator,” she says.
Since then, she has choreographed Snow White and Sleeping Beauty to complete her Princess Trilogy, staged La Traviata with opera singers in 2020, and unveiled Pearl for Ballet Manila’s 30th anniversary earlier this year.
Lisa credits a strong team on both the administrative and artistic side for BM’s longevity. The company can run on its own whenever she travels abroad to judge competitions or conduct workshops. Her management style, she says, is rooted in adaptability.
‘My way of managing is to deal with conflicts or sudden upsets as they happen’
“Mainly, my way of managing is to deal with conflicts or sudden upsets as they happen,” she explains. “You can plan, you can organize, you can cast a dancer — and then something disrupts. The creatures that evolve and survive are those that adapt as quickly and efficiently as possible. I guess that’s me.”
Most valuable of all, Lisa says, is the security, comfort and support she draws from her husband. “He would ask, ‘Why are you not dancing? Why aren’t you performing? When’s your next performance?’”
The same goes for her weekly Art 2 Art talk show on DZRH radio and television. “He asks, ‘When’s your next taping day?’ On trips abroad, he’s always there. Very involved, very supportive. He gives me feedback, tells me when something is off, and tells me when something is really good.”
Lisa counts her blessings. Her namesake school is thriving with strong enrollment. Ballet Manila remains the largest ballet company in the country with 42 dancers, admired both for its training and its artistry. It tours abroad and across the provinces, building audiences who anticipate its return.
“With every performance, it gets easier to sell the company,” she says. “The feedback we get from partners abroad is that when Ballet Manila is coming back, audiences start reserving and buying tickets right away. We’ve developed a reputation abroad for high-quality performances that audiences enjoy. That makes me feel we’re doing the right thing, and we should just continue.”
The triumphant return of Florante (Joshua Enciso) and Laura (Abigail Oliveiro) to the kingdom of Albanya
There are moments, she admits, when it feels as though she is teetering on the edge of burnout, with too many responsibilities demanding her attention. She steadies herself with simple pleasures: knitting with an audiobook, streaming films with Fred, walking the dog, keeping up with her physiotherapy exercises. On work trips, she builds in an extra day for rest and renewal, especially when Fred is with her.
“We are no longer empty nesters,” she adds. Their eldest daughter, Michelle, known as Missy, has returned from the US to keep them company.
At 61, Lisa is proof that a life in ballet never really ends — it only finds new stages.
‘Florante at Laura’ will run for three performances only—on October 3, 8pm, and on October 4 and 5 at 5pm—at the Aliw Theater. Tickets available via Ticketworld.
