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.

“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.

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.

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.

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.

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.”

Photos by Giselle P. Kasilag