Physics major Angelika Tagupa makes time for ballet
Angelika Tagupa (center) dances as part of the corps de ballet in Les Sylphides, the classical half of Ballet Manila’s Deux in 2019. Photo by Giselle P. Kasilag
By Jv Ramos
Ballet Manila company artist Angelika Tagupa is a Physics major who is determined to dance professionally, even as she’s busy working on her thesis. “How my days usually go is, I wake up at 7 a.m. then do some homework and meet up with my thesis adviser if I have something to add to my findings. At 8:30, I prepare for company class then start traveling to BM. After training, when we don’t have shows, I meet with my thesis adviser again at 5 p.m. It’s really physics then ballet then physics!”
Ballet Manila company artist Angelika Tagupa balances her time between ballet and academics. “It has never really been a tug of war between the two,” she claims. Photo by Giselle P. Kasilag
“But it has never really been a tug of war between the two,” the self-confessed nerd clarifies. “I just feel incomplete when I do just one!” A math prodigy, Angelika has been dancing since she was three, beginning her training at the Ballet Dance Academy. “Mahilig ako sa princesses kaya sinali nila ako sa ballet. Nakatulong din na may tita ako na same age as me na nag-ba-ballet. Nu’ng nag-join ako, na-enjoy ko naman, kaya every week ako nagka-klase.” (I liked princesses so they enrolled me in ballet. It also helped that I had an aunt who’s my age who danced ballet. I enjoyed it when I tried it, so after that, I would take ballet class every week.)
The dance form was part of her life, but she didn’t take it as seriously as math — her “first love” — which took her to international competitions. “Nag-quit nga ako ng ballet one time,” the ballerina recalls. “Thirteen ako noon at hindi ako pinayagan ng magulang ko na tanggapin ang nakuha kong scholarship from the Australian Conservatory School of Ballet. Nagtampo ako talaga noon so iniwan ko muna ang ballet.” (When I was thirteen, I wasn’t allowed to accept a scholarship from the Australian Conservatory School of Ballet. I got very upset, so I stopped dancing ballet.)
Participating in the CCP Ballet Competition in 2018, Angelika danced a Princess Aurora variation from Sleeping Beauty. Photo by Giselle P. Kasilag
Eventually, Angelika realized that she felt empty without ballet, so she asked her parents if she could take classes again. “Nag-agree naman sila. Hindi naman sa ayaw ng parents ko ang ballet. Ang mahal lang talaga ng stay ko sa Australia kahit may scholarship akong nakuha.” (They agreed! Why they didn’t send me to Australia had nothing to do with them not liking ballet. It was just too expensive, even if I got a scholarship.)
Since she had already been exposed to teenagers who have made their ballet hobby into a career, she requested to be enrolled in a school. “Napunta ako sa Lisa Macuja School of Ballet (LMSB) sa Fisher Mall. Ito din kasi ang pinakamalapit sa area namin.” (I ended up in the Lisa Macuja School of Ballet, which was the nearest school connected to a dance company in my area.)
She shares, “When I enrolled, I didn’t have expectations. All I wanted was to continue learning more about ballet, but my training there brought me here. Ibang-iba ang training nila compared to the classes I experienced before. Very detailed. Nag-improve talaga ang ballet ko after the course.” (My ballet really improved after the course.)
Angelika adds that in her first recital, Must Dance 2018, the level of performance expected from her was different. “When I was practicing my variation, Sir Shaz [Osias Barroso, founding member of Ballet Manila] was correcting many things — how I would stand, where I should look. It was a big change but it made me hungrier for more. It also helped that we met dancers from the American Stars Gala show in 2018. They were very good, and I wanted to be like them.”
After dancing in Swan Lake Act 2 in American Stars Gala (2018), Angelika (rightmost) and fellow swans Ashley Salonga and Loraine Gaile Jarlega have their picture taken with Ballet Manila artistic director Lisa Macuja-Elizalde.
What attracted Angelika to the Vaganova style of training is how ballet is taught. Every detail is connected to the plot. “Hindi lang random ang poses at movement. May connection siya sa storyline, and I really wanted to learn more about this kind of storytelling.” (It’s never just random poses and movements. Everything you do is connected to the storyline.)
She echoes what Sir Shaz taught her. “He would always tell us to feel the dance. Hindi siya tungkol sa pataasan ng legs, sa pataasan ng jumps o paramihan ng turns. It’s how you portray the dance.” (It’s not about how far you can extend your legs, how high you can jump or how many turns you can do.)
A member of Ballet Manila’s second company by 2019, Angelika’s exposure to performing in front of an audience was cut short when a fire hit Aliw Theater and Star City that October. “Naging part pa ako ng company shows pero hindi siya na parang dati na every week, nag-pe-perform ako sa Star City. Na-miss ko talaga ang regular performances namin.” (I took part in the company shows, but it wasn’t like performing weekly at the Star City, which I really missed.)
Ballet performances felt even more distant when the pandemic hit in 2020. “Hindi talaga nag-wo-work sa akin ang Zoom classes, kaya naman nag-decide ako na the pandemic would be a good time to focus on my studies first while I didn’t have a contract.” (Taking ballet classes in Zoom really didn’t work for me, so I just decided to focus on school.) From Philippine Science High School, she entered the physics program of the University of the Philippines, where every day she wished that physical ballet classes would return.
Angelika (foreground) backstage with fellow dwarves in a pre-pandemic show of Lisa Macuja-Elizalde’s Snow White.
“It’s a good thing that when they reopened the studios, I was already in college. I could therefore take less units when I’d like to spend more time in the studio,” she points out. “I’ll do the same thing for my studies. When I want to focus on finishing and getting my degree, I’ll put ballet on hold first and just keep on dancing after I’m done with college.”
As one who never expected to dance professionally, Angelika is very grateful to Ballet Manila to have given her many opportunities. From dancing at a Fisher Mall studio, she found herself performing in front of audiences, joining competitions, and now, being a part of the main company. “I really am very thankful especially since all I wanted before was to learn more! Yes, dancing now is very different from the time before the pandemic happened. But the joy of being on stage is still very much there!”
Regarding her dream role, she brings up Giselle as the crafting of the movements and poses, she describes, were done cleverly. “Gusto ko rin mag-baliw-baliwan; nakaka-relate ako dahil sa paggawa ko ng thesis (I want to experience acting all crazy; I can relate to that feeling because of my thesis),” says Angelika jokingly. “But I would also like to experience being (the villain) Myrtha. I think I could portray the character well.”
Ballet Manila co-artistic director Osias Barroso (center) congratulates the the company’s senior participants in the 2018 CCP Ballet Competition: (from left) Pia Carmina Romo, Jefferson Balute, first prize winner Joshua Enciso and Angelika Joie Tagupa. Photo by Giselle P. Kasilag
And what does this ballerina do in her spare time? She expresses that she’s not the type to engage in the same activities during her rest days. “I really tend to chill in my free time. I like to spend time with my boyfriend, my friends, play with my cousins, and do animal photography when I go on vacation with my parents.”
Asked what she would advise other young women who may be interested in trying out ballet, Angelika goes, “If you genuinely love ballet, go for it! You experience pain when you do things for the first time, so you would really have to love it and be interested in it. I myself really enjoy and love ballet so I find ways to do it, even when I am studying physics.”
Angelika (center) in Fur Elise, featured in Iconic 2.0 (2018): “Dancing now is very different from the time before the pandemic happened. But the joy of being on stage is still very much there!” Photo by Giselle P. Kasilag
