This Month in BM History: April 2016
Nicole, Joshua, Alvin and Marinette drew applause in St. Petersburg, Russia for their spirited performance of Gerardo Francisco Jr.’s Tara Let’s.
Four teenage talents of Ballet Manila headed to St. Petersburg in April 2016 to participate in the Dance Open International Ballet Festival, dubbed as “one of the biggest ballet forums in the world.”
The program of Rising Stars Gala shows the representatives of the Lisa Macuja School of Ballet billed as the seventh performers of the night. Program from the Ballet Manila Archives collection
Nicole Barroso, Alvin Dictado, Joshua Enciso and Marinette Franco brought their Vaganova training back to its home in the heart of Russia where Ballet Manila artistic director Lisa Macuja-Elizalde herself had studied and was then invited to join the famed Kirov Ballet as a soloist in the 1980s.
Attending master classes and interacting with peers from other countries filled the four dancers' schedule. The classes were conducted by esteemed ballet professors, including Igor Petrov of the Mariinsky Theater and Veronika Ivanova of the Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet who were Macuja-Elizalde’s contemporaries during the years she spent studying and dancing in St. Petersburg.
The Ballet Manila delegation led by co-artistic director Osias Barroso meets up with Tatiana Udalenkova, Lisa Macuja-Elizalde’s mentor at the Leningrad Choreographic Institute where she gave the group a private museum tour.
On April 19, Ballet Manila’s delegation of four joined their colleagues in the Rising Stars Gala at the historic Hermitage Theater. The group performed Gerardo Francisco Jr.’s Tara Let’s, a joyous and free-spirited choreography anchored on the Vagonova training they have undergone for years at the Lisa Macuja School of Ballet and as junior members of Ballet Manila.
“The experience was invaluable as it reaffirmed their training in Ballet Manila,” co-artistic director Osias Barroso, who led the delegation, said back then. “It had a very positive impact on our young dancers.”
A clipping from Philippine Star announces the participation of Nicole Barroso, Alvin Dictado, Joshua Enciso and Marinette Franco in the Dance Open Festival in Russia. Clipping from the Ballet Manila Archives collection
