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.
All in Features
In honor of Father’s Day, we asked members of Ballet Manila to share the most important lesson that their father taught them.
We join the celebration of Father’s Day by asking three BM dancers about the most important lessons fatherhood has taught them.
Alongside their romance, the artistic sparks flew between the prolific painter and the ballet dancer.
Lisa Macuja-Elizalde describes Ang Prinsipe ng mga Ibon as the “Swan Lake switch-around” and proclaims, “It’s one of the most romantic ballets I’ve ever seen!”
From the family lanai where weekly dance lessons were held to a school with two branches offering year-round ballet classes – that sums up the trajectory of the Lisa Macuja School of Ballet Manila.
“Corvus” is the Latin word for crow, and it is the menacing nature of this black bird that convinced Gerardo "Geri" Francisco to put together a new choreography based on it.
Since its founding in 1995, Ballet Manila has subscribed to the Vaganova training method – the same technique that now artistic director Lisa Macuja-Elizalde had learned in the 1980s in St. Petersburg.
So how should students – especially those who are stepping foot in a studio for the first time – make the most of their summer ballet classes? Ballet Manila teachers Eileen Lopez and Jonathan “Jay” Janolo, who are also the BM company’s rehearsal mistress and rehearsal master respectively, offer a variety of advice for both the kids and their parents.
A dream come true, Ballet Manila principal dancer Katherine Barkman writes about how she found her way to Russia through faith and perseverance.
Kitri may be the firecracker star of Don Quixote, but her energy, stamina and vigor can be matched by her equally feisty partner Basilio.
With the celebration of Chinese New Year, Ballet Manila presents this Chinese-themed scene from one of the most popular ballets of all time – The Nutcracker.
On September 9, 1993, Lisa Macuja-Elizalde wrote the following piece in her On Pointes column for the national broadsheet Malaya, just as she was about to dance as Kitri once more.
In the year that it marked its 21st anniversary, Ballet Manila continued to make its presence felt in the local and international dance scenes.
Ballet Manila happily welcomed back its four student-delegates to the recently concluded 2016 Beijing Dance Performance Series for Dance Schools.
Dawna Reign Mangahas shares her shoe hoarding tendencies and other footwear stories in the third and final installment of Shoe talk with Ballet Manila's Cinderellas.
Abigail Oliveiro shares her Cinderella moment and other footwear stories in the second installment of Shoe Talk with Ballet Manila's Cinderellas.
Before the curtains rise on Cinderella, we talk with the three ballerinas about a most fitting topic – what else but shoes!
Ballet Manila toasts the villains who have made classical ballet favorites so wickedly interesting.
Award-winning advertising photographer G-nie Arambulo collaborates with Ballet Manila to take on the challenge of photographing dancers in motion.
Twice a week this summer, on Wednesdays and Fridays, the Ballet Manila studio in Pasay City is alive with the sounds of Bollywood as students learn this dance style from visiting teacher Deepika Ravindran.
