Destiny’s Danseuse

"I’m so jealous when I meet teachers and choreographers who get the chance to work in the Philippines. They always tell me Filipinos are the best students–open listeners, eager to learn, fast pick-up. There’s passion when they dance." She pauses. "Now prove them right people!"

The company of dancers smile, straighten their bodies and lengthen their movements. Tina Santos sure knows how to motivate a class. Founding member of Ballet Philippines and former principal dancer of the Harkness Ballet of New York and the San Francisco Ballet, Tina took time off from a recent Manila visit to teach a class with Ballet Philippines. She was enthusiastic with her praise of the company’s "beautiful and well-trained dancers".

Three dancers from that class found their way to her Quezon City residence for an interview. In casual pants and a crisp blue blouse, she still looks every inch the regal ballerina. She regrets not being able to teach another class, a nasty cold keeping her housebound for the remainder of her all too brief visit.

She generously shares her memories, and photographs from old albums. "That was taken right after my injury. My cast is under the dress," she explains, pointing to a photo in a yellowed 1978 San Francisco broadsheet, the Marin Scope. It showed a young woman on a lounge chair, in a very 70’s glamour pose. Most of her ballet memoirs, she apologizes, are in Florida where she and her family have been based for the last 16 years.

"Most of my memories here are of modeling, plays, opera..." she says.

"You were a model?" I ask, with a mixture of awe and impertinence.

"Oh my god!" she replies, mortified, and drops her head on the table.

She was one of Manila’s top models in the hip 60’s and was a regular on fashion runways and teen magazines. "I was a signature model of Aureo (Alonzo), Pitoy (Moreno), Ben Farrales–that group," she says, pointing to snapshots filled with tall hair and cat-eyed make-up.

Her love affair with the theater began in pre-school when she performed in plays and musicals at St. Paul’s College. A photo of her at five comes with the explanation, "I was Fr. Reuter’s little actress. I have left the stage since." A born performer, she was memorizing two-page speeches in kindergarten. Formal dance lessons started when she was seven under Joji Felix-Velarde and Sony Lopez Gonzalez, she did not know then whether she really wanted to dance. "Basta, I loved the theater so much," she says. By the time she was nine, little Tina put on pointe shoes and two years later she was learning a pas de deux.

Another photo showed her at 14 carried overhead by the country’s then premier danseur, Eddie Elejar. Tall and long-limbed, she towered over boys her age. Teachers couldn’t find her a suitable partner. "Eddie was kind enough to dance with me," she recalls wistfully.

A gifted dancer, Tina was a natural and a quick learner. "They got excited I guess, because here’s this girl who could do everything–only because I loved it. But my technique!" She grimaces as she points to details in the photos–a non-pointed foot, or what she calls an "a la se-besque", a combination of an a la seconde and an arabesque.

"Ballet training and focus then was different," she says. "Today’s dancers are more intense and teachers more demanding."

I don’t think I was a great ballet dancer. I had to work very hard. Technique never came easy," she recalls. Fame happened anyway. "I was very flattered when people called me big names like the Philippines’ First Lady Danseuse and all of that. Audiences looked at us like pop idols because we were the beginning of a new era in dance in Manila."

Tina Santos was, in her words, "original everything". Besides Ballet Philippines and Dance Theatre Philippines (with Philippine ballet authorities Eddie Elejar, Tita Radaic, and Julie Borromeo), she was also a founding member of Repertory Philippines. In addition, she was a child dancer with the Manila Opera Guild. "I experienced everything that maybe some of you kids can’t do today because it’s not available," she says. "At that time konti lang kaming dancers. We did everything!"

Barely 20, she flew off to New York to audition for a scholarship with the prestigious Joffrey Ballet, her dream company because they used modern dance in many of their ballets. "I was proud to be an all around dancer," she says.

Her story begins with a toothache; she arrives at the Big Apple feverish. Three days later, out of shape and missing a tooth, she heads off to Carnegie Hall and picks a class from a list of foreign teachers. Dukudovsky, a Russian, sounded vaguely familiar. She recounts, "I felt very weak but I did my best in class."

At the end of the session, she was invited by principal dancer Eugene Collins, to be part of his company The Washington Ballet. She turned it down flat because, after all, she was there to join–make that audition–for the Joffrey.

Encouraged by the incident, she took her Joffrey audition of four classes in one day. She remembers, "I was exhausted! And I felt so idiotic beside those 16-year-olds. Ang gagaling!" She sobbed all the way on the train going home. True enough, Joffrey didn’t wasn’t convinced she deserved a scholarship.

Later that day she received a telegram to immediately contact a Mr. Renzo Reiss from the Harkness Ballet. It was her other dream company, although she never thought about it because to her Harkness was unattainable. "I heard that they had the best dancers at that time, better pa than Joffrey."

Told to attend the following day’s class, she arrived at the studios a nervous wreck. Never having had to audition in Manila, she had no idea what to expect. Apparently she was the only one in class being screened, something she learned much later. At the first center exercise, she was called to stay right smack in front. The movements ran through her mind as the combination began: port de bras the right arm to fifth position...Hail Mary full of grace...lower to first and open to third position...the Lord is with thee... Santos, if you have any saving grace just dance your heart out!

"I was so nervous!" she recounts. "I thought, show nalang your performing ability. I looked so comfortable but really I was dying inside my heart."

At Reiss’ office after class, he gave her one look, placed a contract in front of her and said, "Sign at the bottom line. We’re leaving for Europe in three months." Apparently, Renzo Reiss heard about a new girl in town from his good friend at the Washington Ballet, Eugene Collins. So barely a week in New York City, Tina Santos got herself a job with the Harkness Ballet. "This is the truth and the most amazing story," she says.

On tour in Lisbon, a principal dancer whose role she understudied was injured. "I’m gonna do my best–papabongahin ko ’to! Ganoon ang attitude!" she relates.

The part was a pas de deux and she was joined for the first time with her future husband, dancer Gary Wahl. Destiny had hit two birds with one stone: after the performance, six months into her new job, she had found herself a soul mate and a soloist contract.

Then, "timing na naman," in 1973, the San Francisco Ballet was looking to hire principal dance couples, so Tina and Gary left the autumn cold of New York and moved to sunny California. In 1976 Manila saw the Tina Santos the ballet world had been raving about when she performed Sleeping Beauty and Shinjun, a ballet made especially for her by Michael Smuin, with Ballet Philippines.

At the peak of her career, performing lead roles and dancing with her husband, life was good for Tina Santos. "I was so confident with my technique but I was overworked," she states. In 1978, during a performance of Jerome Robbins’ Moves, tragedy struck: While executing a complicated partnering jump, she dislocated her kneecap.

"I knew I already hurt myself at that time," she says. "I had no knee. I couldn’t feel it...I finished the ballet, fainted and got rushed to emergency." It was foolish of her to have continued dancing with a dislocated knee, but that is what a professional dancer does. Nobody knew anything was amiss until she fainted.

A faraway look creeps into Tina}s expressive eyes. "There was no such thing as Pilates, yoga, or any of the strengthening that you have today," she notes with a hint of frustration. When her cast was removed she looked like she had polio. Doctors recommended biking and simple leg lifts. She eventually came back to dancing but it wasn’t the same.

In 1979, for the 10th anniversary of Ballet Philippines, Tina was billed to do Swan Lake with the company. A week before opening night she developed fluid in her knee; it was the beginning of the end.

It’s luck," she says of her incredible dancing career. "It’s about being at the right place at the right time." Tina Santos has been teaching and inspiring young dancers to follow their dreams for over 20 years now. "Now our generation is teaching you. What we’re emphasizing is strength, endurance, line, placement, etc. Once you find your placement, everything follows. Artistry comes easier. Secure ka na."

In Florida, she helped establish the Harid Conservatory. "I never knew I loved to teach until I really got involved with a school like that," she reveals. Harid is considered one of the top ballet schools in the US where students are thoroughly prepared for a professional career in dance.

"It’s very hard for me to teach technique without emphasizing where the art comes from," she says. "I look at my students and say, ‘They’re not going to hire you because you’re a perfect technician. They’re going to hire you because of what comes from here"–she points to heart–"and here"–then her eyes.

Still on a 30-year pas de deux with husband Gary, she takes pleasure in living the simple life–reading books and fishing. "I’m a fisherwoman. I’m not a Floridian for nothing!" They take their own boat to catch trout and redfish in Florida Bay. "I just had to learn not to throw up while filleting the fish," she laughs. "My husband taught me how to love the outdoors."

Tina Santos Wahl is currently a full-time faculty of the New World School for the Arts in Miami. She has just received her tenure-track after five years. "I am very happy with my current job," she says. "More hard work, but a good life overall."