Principal dancer: Joshua Enciso
For Joshua Enciso, the love for ballet began when it offered him refuge as a young child being teased about his weight. He was 12 years old when he joined the Southernside Montessori School Dance Theater (SMSDT). He trained for three years in classical and folk dance, jazz, hiphop and cheer dance as well.
He had no intentions of pursuing ballet but his mentor, Melvin Dela Cruz, encouraged him to audition for Ballet Manila’s summer workshop. He was accepted and the company’s co-artistic director Osias Barroso took over his training.
From a scholar of the 2015 summer intensive program, Joshua became a trainee in the same year. He made the second company, BM2, in 2016 and joined the first company in 2018. He was named soloist a year later. In 2022, Joshua was promoted to principal dancer.
He began competing as a member of the SMSDT. He placed second at the solo classical junior division and was named the Beni Toledo Awardee in the Philippine Dance Cup in 2012. He competed again in 2014 where he placed sixth in the solo classical senior division and fifth in the solo contemporary senior division. He was once again named the Beni Toledo Awardee for that year.
He first competed in the Asian Grand Prix in Hong Kong in 2013 but was able to make the finals after joining Ballet Manila in 2015 and 2016. He snagged the fifth place in 2017.
He also competed in the Cultural Center of the Philippines Ballet Competition in 2016 where his performance of Ili-Ili, a choreography by Ballet Manila principal dancer Gerardo Francisco Jr., won for the latter the Trudl Dubsky Zipper Award. In 2018, he brought home the first prize in the senior division in the same competition.
He also participated in the USA International Ballet Competition in 2018, partnering Nicole Barroso who went on to receive the Jury Encouragement Award. They were the first Filipino pair to be accepted to compete in the junior division of the USA IBC.
Joshua has performed in Ballet Manila’s various classical productions including Giselle, Swan Lake, Eric V. Cruz’s Carmen, Lisa Macuja Elizalde’s Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty, Don Quixote, and Le Corsaire. His first lead role in a full-length production was the Prince in Lisa Macuja-Elizalde’s Snow White. But he has regularly been performing the well-known pas de deux and variations from such classics as Paquita, Giselle (Peasant pas de deux), La Esmeralda (Diane et Acteon), and Don Quixote (Basilio variation), among many others. He has also been featured in BM’s contemporary pieces such as Arachnida, Aramica, El-Adwa, Fuga (a competition piece created on him and Nicole Barroso for the USA IBC) and Gerardo Francisco’s full-length Ibong Adarna.
He has traveled the world with Ballet Manila and has performed in Russia, China, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Israel.
Discover the many roles of Joshua Enciso, principal dancer of Ballet Manila.
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