25 years of Lisa Macuja

MANILA, Philippines - What a difference a quarter century makes. For the country’s very own Prima Ballerina and now cultural icon Lisa Macuja, it means an unparalleled and enviable track record in dance artistry. Macuja looked back on some of the highlights of her 25-year career via an hour-long unforgettable program of classical and contemporary ballet pieces in “A Ballet’s Masterpiece” at SM City Cebu’s Northwing last September 4, 2009.

She opened the show by performing the lead Odette in the Tchaikovsky creation, Swan Lake. Fashioned from Russian folk tales as well as an ancient German legend, Swan Lake tells the story of Odette, a princess turned into a swan by an evil sorcerer’s curse.

Performing this respected classical ballet piece prompted a throwback into the early years of her career when she decided to return to the Philippines after her training at the elite Russian Academy of Ballet and dancing with the prestigious Kirov Ballet Company in Russia. “Odette is one of my first principal roles. I’ve danced the dual role of Odette—the white swan, and Odile—the black swan probably more than 30 times in my career so far,” Macuja once said in a newspaper interview.

There’s an interesting backstory as to how she was able to learn the Odette/Odile role. It was in Havana, Cuba where she first danced it, backed by the National Ballet de Cuba. She had to study the role in just four days as a Brazilian prima ballerina got injured and she was asked to be the immediate replacement. She said yes and the rest is history. She recalled in one interview that it wasn’t her best performance, and that she would be able to master the role only after many repeat performances. Had she not stepped up to the challenge, however, she might not have the courage to ever do it unless she would be mentored by the finest teachers.

After Swan Lake, Macuja aptly followed it up with another classical number by dancing Kitri in Don Quixote, one of the many principal roles that she has had essayed in over 200 ballet performances all over the world. Kitri is also obviously a huge favorite of hers as she detailed in her blog how this affair with this role started: “All throughout my two years in the Russian Ballet Academy, I dreamed of dancing Kitri one fine day… that fiery Spanish girl full of mischief and spark. All those jumps and turns – a technical showcase of almost acrobatic prowess – and all that flirting with the handsome, dynamic Basilio.

“Fast forward to two years later, as my graduation piece, I am dancing the pas de deux (a duet in which ballet steps are performed together) from the final act of Don Quixote. My first Basilio was Bakhitjan Smagulov, my top graduate classmate from Alma-Ata in the, then, Russian Republic of Kazhakstan. I peg the 32 fouettes and cause the conductor, Viktor Fedotov, to play Kitri’s variation with a faster tempo making the musicians in the pit look up and stare at me during the curtain calls while they beat their bows against their upraised instruments in acknowledgement. I am happy not really because I had danced my dream pas de deux but because I was able to make my teacher, Tatiana Udalenkova, a proud fairy godmother. She had transformed me from an ugly duckling into a swan.  

“Fast forward to January of 1986 and I am about to dance my first full-length ballet of Don Quixote. I had one shot at this dream in the same Marinsky Theater I had first set eyes on this ballet in 1982. A ruptured thigh muscle made it painful – but I was on this adrenalin rush like no other that it took me 24 hours before I could land back on the ground. I was on such a high that day, the two hours of dancing and the 20-minute curtain call a blur. My parents and brother were in the front row. My teacher Tatiana burst into tears in the dressing room. That very first Kitri has been a highlight of my career. I had fulfilled a dream and no one could ever take that away from me.”

The SM Northwing performance could also be one of the last times audiences will get to see Macuja as Kitri. She has said with seeming finality that she’ll dance her last full-length Kitri role on the actual silver anniversary celebration this coming October.

From the classical ballets of Europe, Macuja went on to present a Filipino-themed number in Sana’y Wala ng Wakas, which was specially choreographed for her by the late Tony Fabella, who was regarded as an institution in the Philippine dance circuit.

Including a work of Fabella in her program also served as a tribute to the well-respected choreographer. It wouldn’t be a surprise if Macuja found a kindred spirit in Fabella. After all, Macuja, through her Project Ballet Futures, shares Fabella’s passion to seek out artistically inclined children from among marginalized sectors, and give them with free training in the performing arts.

As a choreographer, this was what Macuja had to say of Fabella in one media interview: “Tony Fabella is one of the country’s most talented and most prolific choreographers. He has given many choreographic gems to Ballet Manila and to me, personally, as gifts of his wonderful talent, without asking for remuneration for such beautiful and intricate works that always delight the audience.”

Performing Sana’y Wala ng Wakas also literally demonstrated a personal wish of Macuja. She said, “Sana’y wala ring wakas ang career ko so I can keep on dancing. Ultimately, I will retire, eventually.”

Macuja made sure her SM Northwing program came to a rousing close as she performed the Korean mega hit “Nobody” and the APO Hiking Society favorite “Dobidobido.”

She had quite an experience doing these numbers, admitting that “for Nobody, I had to rehearse it so many times because I could not get it in the beginning.” The numbers drew some of the strongest ovations, most probably because it came as a wonder to the audience how such pop songs can be reworked into ballet renditions. Macuja explained, “It was our finale because it is our way to keep the art current and to reach out to the young people in the audience.”

Indeed, in Macuja’s long and fruitful career, it is efforts to make her art more palatable for all kinds of audiences that are the most remarkable marks of her trade. Other than seamlessly weaving classical ballet into pop, there’s also her effort to dance for free and to bring ballet to venues perhaps unthinkable for this kind of “high art”—from cockpits, gyms, to streets. She also has a multi-awarded radio show, Art 2 Art, to further close in whatever divide there is. And things are paying off.  

Macuja said, “Normally, ballerinas retire after 10 to 15 years. I’m on my 25th year and still going strong. I don’t think my audience is suffering from watching me perform… yet. I’m very, very, very lucky to have a long career.”

Macuja will celebrate her silver anniversary this October 2, 3, 4 and 9, 10, 11 at the Aliw Theater. For inquiries, call balletmanila.ph.