Ballet Manila’s Don Quixote in 2004 was its third staging of the classic using the choreography by Alexander Gorsky after Marius Petipa and the music by Ludwig Minkus. It marked the opening of the company’s tenth performance season that would also feature Le Corsaire, La Bayadere, Pinocchio and Carmen & Giselle.

This Don Quixote run was special for another reason. It celebrated the 16th anniversary of the dance partnership of principal artists Lisa Macuja-Elizalde and Osias Barroso who, by 2004, had already performed some 120 full-length ballets in 40 cities around the world.

Writing in her artistic director’s notes, Macuja-Elizalde said of her extraordinary relationship with Barroso: “Since we began dancing together in Les Sylphides in 1988, Osias and I have developed into a perfectly synchronized team – not just onstage as a pair of dancers but offstage as a pair of dance leaders.”

One comment of hers then reflects how ballet is truly a hand-me-down art, passed on through the generations as they themselves were experiencing. “We first performed the roles of Kitri and Basilio in Krasnoyarsk, Russia in 1992. Back then, Osias had all of four days to learn and rehearse the part. As veterans today, we have prepared young BM soloists Sandralynn Huang, Marian Faustino, Jerome Espejo and Gerardo Francisco as our first-time alternates in these demanding roles.”

She also remarked what it is about this ballet classic that makes it a favorite: “Yes, it is more emotionally stimulating to dance the tragic or dramatic or even romantic ballets – but Don Quixote’s light, comic and technical flavor makes for a clap-trapping evening of fun and excitement.”