The Ballet Manila Archives is the repository of documents, print, photographic, audio and video materials and memorabilia relating to the history of Ballet Manila and the life and career of its founder, prima ballerina Lisa Macuja-Elizalde. This site is powered by Ms. Elizalde and Project Art, Inc.
A closer look, however, reveals that the hero may not have been as willing to sacrifice for his temple dancer.
For Ballet Manila’s 31st year, Geri – now Ballet Manila co-artistic associate – is entrusting the role to soloists Jos David Andes and Rafael “Paeng” Perez.
Very few would suspect that its choreographer Marius Petipa was fighting almost every step of the way with prima ballerina Ekaterina Vazem who took on the lead role of Nikiya.
Company artists Marinette Franco and Angelika Tagupa take a lot of pride in corps dancing and are very serious about upholding the tradition of “being a single organism” on stage.
Marius Petipa’s most popular exotic ballet premiered in 1877 at the Imperial Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre, Saint Petersburg to an appreciative audience that immediately hailed it as a masterpiece.
According to the prima ballerina, La Bayadere is considered the most difficult among all the white ballets.
No matter how dark the moment, love and hope are always possible.
Ballet Manila’s tour was a historic feat considering that the dancers were the first Filipino delegates to the International Music Festival of the Asia-Pacific Region in Krasnoyarsk.
As the company prepares to bring it back for a fourth time, we put the spotlight on the souvenir program covers of its previous productions.
“There was that breath in dancing, a quality that’s hardly seen in the younger generation. “
After 16 years, Ballet Manila is bringing back the spectacle in August and here are three good reasons to catch it.
“I wanted something more – something that I had always wanted to do, which was to move to Manila and dance with Ballet Manila,” she shares.
Dance helps us dream bigger dreams and understand our connectedness. When we close our eyes and dream, we are all brothers.
“Doon ko nare-realize na kailangan kong tumayo ulit at lumaban.”
“I was never really supposed to be in ballet,” says Ballet Manila apprentice Maxeene Castillo.
On June 11, 1998, the eve of the Philippine Centennial, Ballet Manila joined eight other companies in a show to cap an unprecendented six-week, 100-performance series.
The Ballet Manila Archives shares the article in full in memory of Mrs. Radaic, an institution in Philippine dance and a teacher to generations of ballet artists, who passed away on June 2, 2026.
