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.
Ballet Manila has showcased a rich palette of hues in its productions over the years. Now, the company’s true colors are revealed! Gathering photographs from the Ballet Manila Archives, we present the vibrant and the somber, the heavenly to the earthy, in a series of virtual exhibitions – one shade at a time.
Twins Pearl and Pia Dames channel the festive season in their pink ensembles – complete with floral masks and hats – for a Nutcracker number in 2020 kicking off a mall’s Christmas activities. Photo from Pearl Dames’ Facebook page
Light on her feet in light pink! That’s Pamela Asprer as Lise, the village girl in La Fille Mal Gardee (2000) who only has eyes for Colas even if her mother, the Widow Simone, wants her to wed the wealthy Alain. Photo by Ocs Alvarez
Marinette Franco is naughty in pink as she plays one of the wicked stepsisters in Lisa Macuja-Elizalde’s Cinderella, excerpted in August 2022 for the relaunch of Aliw Theater. Photo by Giselle P. Kasilag
Lisa Macuja-Elizalde as the eldest daughter in Labindalawang Masasayang Prinsesa is stunning in magenta, just one of the dazzling colors worn by the sister-princesses in the Lola Basyang story. Photo by Ocs Alvarez
Elena Chernova leads the ballerinas, all of them in blush pink tutus, in performing one of the most exquisite sequences in classical ballet – the Living Garden scene in Le Corsaire (2010). Photo by Ocs Alvarez
A reflection of the genteel character she portrays, Joan Emery Sia as Honoreé in Lisa Macuja-Elizalde’s La Traviata (2022, featured in Rise!) aptly dons delicate pink. She entreats her father, Giorgio Germont, to ask her brother Alfredo to part with his courtesan lover, Violetta, to save her own impending wedding to a nobleman. Photo by Giselle P. Kasilag
Marian Faustino wears a pink tutu with flowy skirt and matching pink accents on the arms – all swirling delicately as she moves in Tony Fabella’s Dancing to Verdi, as partnered by Jerome Espejo. The neo-classical piece was showcased in OPM at OPM (2003). Photo by Ocs Alvarez
