Home sweet home: Soloist Rissa May Camaclang returns to Ballet Manila stronger and wiser
Rissa May Camaclang’s most memorable role with Ballet Manila, before the pandemic, was as the seductress Carmen in Eric V. Cruz’s Carmen (2018). Photo by MarBi Photography
By Jv Ramos
The COVID-19 pandemic caused many of us to move out of our comfort zone, and such was the running theme of Rissa May Camaclang’s experience in the past two to three years. Starting out as a Project Ballet Futures scholar, this artist spent most of her days in the studios of Ballet Manila since she was nine, until she was eventually promoted to soloist; but all that changed when the community lockdowns were implemented in 2020. Like other dancers all over the world, Rissa turned to online classes and activities to keep ballet in her life.
“Naalala ko noong unang months pa lang ng pandemic; mahal pa talaga ang mga ballet equipment noon, kaya naman upuan lang or edge ng cabinet ang gamit ko pang-barre work,” recalls the ballerina. “Tapos nu’ng nahirapan kami sa space, lumabas na lang ako sa hallway at doon nag-klase. Pero ang pinakamahirap talaga ang delay ng Internet. Iba-iba ang timing namin dahil iba-iba ang dinig namin sa music.” (I remember the early months of the pandemic; it was still expensive to source ballet equipment, so I would just use a chair or the edge of a cabinet as my barre… And when we couldn’t comfortably dance in one space, I took my class in the hallway. The most difficult thing about the situation though was the delayed Internet connection. Our timings were a mess because we’d hear the music play at different times.)
Although she has learned a lot from going out of her comfort zone, Ballet Manila soloist Rissa May Camaclang says it was just time to come home. Photo by Giselle P. Kasilag
Given that live performances were cancelled, Ballet Manila’s principals and soloists were tasked to teach and demonstrate for the online classes of the Lisa Macuja School of Ballet, giving Rissa May the opportunity to participate in handling younger dancers. “Mahirap noong una ‘yon dahil sa limited na gamit. Naalala ko na cellphone lang ang gamit ko noong una. Pero later on, naging smart na rin ang mga tao at nagkaroon na tayo ng kung anu-anong gamit para sa home studio na hanggang ngayon okay pa rin.” (Having limited equipment made doing demos difficult. I remember just using a cellphone when I first did demos. But later on, people became smarter and developed their home studios using various gadgets, which are still used today.)
“Okay ako sa pag-de-demo,” adds the very straightforward Rissa May. “Pero nakaka-drain siya physically and mentally kung lagi ka na lang nasa bahay. Ilang months din namin ito ginawa.” (I’m okay with doing demos in the classes. But it can be physically and mentally draining when that’s all you do at home. I did that for several months.)
Dancing as one of the women Romeo (Joshua Enciso, right) falls for, Rissa May (leftmost) makes her comeback with Ballet Manila in Martin Lawrance’s Romeo & Juliet (2023). Also in photo are Shaira Comeros and Angelika Tagupa. Photo by Erickson Dela Cruz
She clearly missed the social aspect of ballet – the interaction with other dancers and performing for an audience. So when the opportunity came wherein she could at least go out of her apartment, she took it.
Sometime in 2020, Ballet Manila artistic director Lisa Macuja-Elizalde called Rissa May to ask if she’d be interested in joining the Cultural Center of the Philippines’ program for displaced dancers. The six-month initiative called the Professional Dance Support Program (PDSP) brought dancers from different companies together, providing them daily training and offering them an opportunity to dance new choreographies to be shown in the CCP Facebook page.
“Because I was craving to dance, I agreed to be one of the representatives of Ballet Manila. Going through that program wasn’t easy. It was the pandemic after all and we didn’t have vaccines yet, so every day, before we entered the CCP Lobby, we would get our temperatures checked, get our blood pressure taken before training started. I always felt anxious!” recalls Rissa May.
Rissa May gives a fun and flirty performance as Mercedes in Don Quixote (2017). Photo by Ocs Alvarez
The ballerina notes that the anxiety wasn’t so much about the change in her daily routine or dancing more modern pieces than classical ballet. It stemmed from the fact that though they trained and learned new pieces, these still wouldn’t be performed in front of a live audience. “It really made me question if things would really return or if ballet still had a future!”
Despite these looming thoughts, she powered through the program. “When I saw that others were working hard for the return of dance, I pushed myself to really learn new things. Kung kaya nila, kaya ko rin! Kaya ko rin mag-pretzel roll!” (If they could do it, I could do it too! I, too, could do the pretzel roll!)
While she found herself to be weak when it came to dancing contemporary, Rissa May says her peers in PDSP never made her feel inferior. “They all helped me to adjust. They really helped me until I could do it.” Later on, she was cast in the contemporary pieces Musa by Erl Sorilla, Now by Lester Reguindin and I Wanna Say Something by JM Cabling – all of which she believes she performed well enough. “I didn’t feel comfortable dancing non-classical ballet, but at the end of the day, this was the job that was given to me as a dancer, so I just challenged myself.”
Joining Ballet Manila’s Russian tour in 2018, Rissa May is a commanding presence as the lead dancer in Agnes Locsin’s Sayao sa Pamlang.
Always one to watch recordings of her performances, Rissa May felt she improved a lot from her first day at PDSP, which encouraged her all the more to continue with the program. “I was more excited about the second batch, since the culminating activity was a live show at CCP,” enthuses the ballerina. In that show, entitled Tuloy ang Pasko, she came across a familiar feeling she never thought she’d encounter again. “May kaba akong naramdaman. Ito ang kaba na nararamdaman mo pag may manonood sa iyo at sobrang na-miss ko ‘yon, and alam ko, na-miss din ng audience na makapanood ng live show!” (I felt nervous. But it was the kind of nervousness that only came when dancing in front of an audience. I really missed that feeling, and I’m pretty sure the audience really missed watching live shows.)
Adding to the thrill was the presence of Macuja-Elizalde. “Ma’am Lise was very happy about my performance and that I was getting to try new dance experiences! She’s been very supportive of all my decisions throughout the pandemic.”
Among the dance experiences that Lisa was encouraging about was Rissa May’s entry to Ballet Philippines (BP), which, early in 2022, started the BP Guest Artist program. This initiative allowed dancers from other companies to train and perform with BP under new artistic director Mikhail “Misha” Martynyuk for one year.
Several Ballet Manila dancers auditioned for the program, with five being accepted into BP. Rissa May was joined by fellow BM soloist Nicole Barroso, principal dancers Elpidio Magat Jr. and Joan Emery Sia, and company member Brian Sevilla. Being with other dancers from the BM family, she says, helped her adapt to a new environment. “Being with fellow BM dancers made me brave. Being with them made me less anxious about dancing for another company,” admits the ballerina.
Rissa May projects power and strength as the leader of the Amazonas in Gerardo Francisco Jr.’s Ibong Adarna (2019). Photo by Giselle P. Kasilag
“Working with Misha also made that experience great,” underlines Rissa May. “He actually remembered us from those times when he was a guest artist in Ballet Manila. Anyway, since his training is similar to ours, BP felt like home. Corrections were similar and the pieces, being classical ballet, were something that I was more accustomed to. The only challenge was the faster pace required by Misha. This was challenging for all of us at first, but we were able to adjust quickly.”
Rissa May enjoyed performing Martynyuk’s pieces as well, particularly Equus which was part of BP’s show dubbed Dance Here and Now: Equus, Bolero and Other Dances which was staged at the CCP in September 2022. In the same show, she was able to dip her toes in classical ballet again through Tarantella which she found both exhilarating and exciting.
While a worthwhile journey, Rissa May decided to cut short her stint with BP, saying goodbye to the company last December. By that time, Ballet Manila was starting to return to the stage as well, and was in need of more female dancers. “I just knew from this that I should come back; that it’s my turn to help the company out.”
The classics will always be special to Rissa May, who is seen here in Michael Fokine’s Les Sylphides (from Deux, 2019). Photo by Ian Santos
Since returning, Rissa May has been adjusting quite well to the daily Vaganova classes she was once used to. Admittedly, since she was steeped in more contemporary dance forms the past three years, she knows she has to continue improving her turnout and her technique.
She welcomes the opportunity to try out new things and discloses that she and fellow soloist John Ralp Balagot have been studying Agnes Locsin’s Arachnida, one of the more challenging contemporary pieces from BM’s repertoire which is about mating spiders. “Aside from the fierce personality that’s required, Arachnida requires the ballerina to be very flexible, and I’m not there yet. Right now, Balagot and I can do the tricks but our transitions need work. We’ll keep working hard to get there,” she promises.
Rissa May has just finished her comeback performance with Ballet Manila, being part of the supporting cast of Martin Lawrance’s Romeo & Juliet, a modern-day version set in the Philippines. Next, she’s looking forward to the company’s staging of the classic Don Quixote in May, which will be followed by Gerardo Francisco Jr.’s Ibong Adarna in August.
If there’s anything that the pandemic taught Rissa May, it’s that Ballet Manila will always be her home. “When I was in PDSP and BP, I found myself always returning to and applying the teachings of Ma’am Lise and Sir Shaz [Osias Barroso], and of Teacher Jay and Teacher Sofie [Jonathan Janolo and Sofia Sangco-Peralta]. They taught me a lot about discipline, respect, and learning from others, which is the kind of environment I’d like to keep growing in. I really couldn’t be more happy about renewing my contract with the company I grew up with. I’m also happy about being able to return with more learnings and experiences!”
Visiting the Ballet Manila Archives, Rissa May smiles upon seeing a copy of the Halo-Halo Supreme souvenir program from 2008, saying it was her first time to be part of a Ballet Manila production when she was still a scholar. Photo by Giselle P. Kasilag
