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.”

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.

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.”