This Month in BM History: September 1999
Ballet Manila’s Don Quixote in 1999 served as Lisa Macuja-Elizalde’s comeback after becoming a mother in 1998. Program from the Ballet Manila Archives collection
Staging the full-length Don Quixote in 1999 – just two years after its founding – was a major achievement for Ballet Manila given its still modest size then.
As artistic director Eric V. Cruz pointed out in the souvenir program, everyone in the company was casted from principals and soloists to the very last scholar, with most dancers tackling as many as four roles each. Three acts also meant at least three costume changes for every dancer and three set changes that translated to more expenses than other productions.
But it was worth doing it, Cruz said, especially since it marked the return of then principal dancer and artistic associate Lisa Macuja-Elizalde to the stage after giving birth to her first child the previous year. It was a fitting comeback for Lisa who considers Kitri as her signature role. At the time, she had already danced as the mischievous innkeeper’s daughter in 28 full-length productions and in over 150 performances of the ballet’s famous pas de deux.
“The dancing was superb and deserved applause,” wrote critic Basilio Esteban Villaruz of Ballet Manila’s Don Quixote. Clipping from the Ballet Manila Archives collection
In the Ballet Manila show, she was partnered anew by Osias Barroso as her Basilio. The two had danced in the same production and the same roles in numerous guest performances in Russia.
The pair reaped praise from dance critic Basilio Esteban Villaruz who wrote in a review for the Philippine Daily Inquirer: “(Lisa’s) sauciness was evident in technique and in portrayal. Her speed was always amazing and her risk-taking was a spectacle… Barroso was also in fine form, as exciting and as daring.”
What made this Don Quixote – staged at the GSIS Theater from September 10 to 12 and from September 17 to 19 – even more special was the debut of Pamela Asprer and Aileen Gallinera as Kitri and of the “Flying Espejos” – brothers Eduardo and Jeffrey – as their respective Basilio.
Critic Villaruz enthused: “Ballet Manila filled the small stage of GSIS with exultant dancing. Young dancers – from walk-on kids to pretty apprentices and new members – restored our faith in ballet. It seems that while other dancers leave their companies for abroad, BM is raising a vigorous crop of inspired ones.”
Since making her full-length debut as Kitri in Don Quixote with the Kirov Ballet in 1986, Lisa Macuja has considered it as her signature role. Clipping from the Ballet Manila Archives collection
