‘Leaner but stronger’ Ballet Manila returns to ‘harder-working’ Aliw Theater complex
Manila Broadcasting Company chairman Fred J. Elizalde and wife, Ballet Manila artistic director Lisa Macuja-Elizalde, are in a jovial mood as they prepare to cut the ribbon opening the new Elizalde Complex.
Nearly three years after a devastating fire struck the Star City Complex, leaving Ballet Manila without a performance venue, a re-envisioned Aliw Theater has opened – ready to welcome back the company and its audience and, in its new incarnation, to hopefully draw more of the public to its fold.
Signifying the “rise of the phoenix,” a pair of dancers in Ballet Manila’s Ibong Adarna costumes – Marinette Franco and Angelika Joie Tagupa – take flight to launch the reconceptualized Elizalde Complex, anchored on Aliw Theater.
“We are back. We start a new journey and a new vision…. leaner but stronger, and meaner; (in a) smaller but better (theater). Ballet Manila can finally return to its home and mount a series of performances starting in October,” artistic director Lisa Macuja-Elizalde triumphantly announced in a speech launching the new Elizalde Complex last August 10 with members of the media, colleagues in the performing arts and other guests in attendance.
The prima ballerina, together with husband, Manila Broadcasting Company chairman Fred J. Elizalde, earlier cut the ribbon formally opening what she described as a “harder-working complex with three distinct facilities that can hold different types of events.”
These are: Aliw Theater - for concerts and theatrical performances; The Custom Space - for rehearsals, intimate performances, recitals, exhibits and social events; and Elizalde Hall - for business meetings, training events and small conferences.
Stage stalwarts Reb Atadero and Mitch Valdes act as the day’s emcees, leading a tour of the complex that culminates in a program inside Aliw Theater.
Understandably, Aliw Theater will be at the core of Ballet Manila’s re-emergence in the live performance scene, not just after the fire but also amid a pandemic that closed theaters, concert halls and other show venues two years ago.
Macuja-Elizalde said even as the pandemic delayed reconstruction of Star City and Aliw Theater, it also eventually proved to be a blessing in disguise. “(It allowed) us a bit of relief, time to rest, recover, repair, rebuild, rethink, knowing we could not go back to the way things were before.”
But true to a promise she made shortly after the fire that razed the entertainment complex in October 2019, she said “the phoenix has risen” – echoing the mythical bird emerging from the ashes and beginning a new life.
A massive LED screen on stage is among the new features that can be found in Aliw Theater.
Principal dancers Mark Sumaylo and Abigail Oliveiro headline the excerpt of Lisa Macuja-Elizalde’s Cinderella, which will be Ballet Manila’s special holiday presentation.
While the smaller Star Theater could no longer be put back together again, the focus turned to expanding Aliw beyond being just a theater. Thus, the new Elizalde Complex not only features the theater itself but facilities that can double as rehearsal or events spaces and can be used for business meetings or conferences.
Macuja-Elizalde took the opportunity to reveal Ballet Manila’s upcoming schedule, starting with performances of her own choreography, La Traviata, in October, in time for her birthday, and the return of her Cinderella in December for the Christmas season to usher in the company’s first “holiday dance cheer” concept.
Ballet Manila’s 25th performance season, which will actually happen on its 28th year, will begin in February with the premiere of Martin Lawrance’s full-length Romeo and Juliet, and a restaging of the ballet classic Don Quixote.
Soloists Joshua Enciso and Jessica Pearl Dames perform the leads in Martin Lawrance’s Romeo and Juliet which the British choreographer is expanding into a full-length ballet.
A short program in last week’s launch featured Ballet Manila dancers performing excerpts of La Traviata, Romeo and Juliet and Cinderella.
It is a somewhat bittersweet re-start to Ballet Manila, as it is now a smaller company counting members just a third of what it used to have pre-pandemic when it had as many as 50 to 60 dancers that allowed it to mount full-length classics.
“We cannot do a Swan Lake or a Giselle for now,” Macuja-Elizalde said during an open forum.
The gypsies in Lisa Macuja-Elizalde’s La Traviata, one of the numbers presented at the launch of the Elizalde Complex.
She also mentioned that some people she built the company with are no longer able to join her in Ballet Manila’s next chapter, citing co-artistic director Osias Barroso Jr. who has been sidelined by illness.
However, despite the continuing challenges ahead, Macuja-Elizalde remained optimistic. “We start over again, more determined, more passionate – the only way to go.”
An emotional Lisa Macuja-Elizalde fights back tears as Ballet Manila returns at last to its home and performance venue, Aliw Theater.
Photos by Giselle P. Kasilag
