The Ballet Manila Archives is the repository of documents, print, photographic, audio and video materials and memorabilia relating to the history of Ballet Manila and the life and career of its founder, prima ballerina Lisa Macuja-Elizalde. This site is powered by Ms. Elizalde and Project Art, Inc.
Ballet Manila has showcased a rich palette of hues in its productions over the years. Now, the company’s true colors are revealed! Gathering photographs from the Ballet Manila Archives, we present the vibrant and the somber, the heavenly to the earthy, in a series of virtual exhibitions – one shade at a time.
Don Jose (Osias Barroso) is a dashing figure in black as he leads his soldiers in this scene from Eric V. Cruz’s Carmen (2003). It is no wonder that when Carmen lays eyes on him, he catches her fancy and she promptly seduces him. Photo by Ocs Alvarez
Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. In Lisa Macuja Elizalde’s Sleeping Beauty (2026), Caraboose (Stephanie Santiago) has not been invited to the christening of Aurora, but she swoops into the event anyway in her black outfit to seek revenge by casting a spell on the princess. Photo by Missy Macuja Elizalde
It may be environmentally themed and titled Green, but the choreography by Hazel Sabas in Maligayang Christmas (2011) has a full cast of dancers wearing black as they pay tribute to the four elements of nature – earth, water, wind and fire. Photo by Ocs Alvarez
Both in black, Siegfried (Alfren Salgado) and Odile (Abigail Oliveiro) seem to be the perfect pair in Swan Lake (2014). But the unknowing prince has mistaken the Black Swan, controlled by the sorcerer Von Rothbart, for his beloved Odile. Photo by Daniel Trinidad
Movements that are at once mysterious and sensuous are executed by Romeo Peralta Jr. and Jessica Pearl Dames in Agnes Locsin’s Arachnida, about mating spiders. It was performed as part of Ballet Manila’s Greatest Hits in Malaysia (2024). Photo by Larry Salgado
Alfredo (Mark Sumaylo) has caught sight of Violetta and is instantly smitten in Lisa Macuja Elizalde’s La Traviata (2020). Prodded by friends portrayed by Brian Sevilla and Gerardo Francisco Jr., Alfredo – debonair in black – prepares to approach her. Photo by Giselle P. Kasilag
Clad in a black suit, Thomas (Marcus Tolentino) makes his entrance in La Fille Mal Gardee (2005). The wealthy landowner is ready to make an agreement with Mother Simone to marry off his son Alain to her daughter Lise in the countryside-set ballet. Photo by Ocs Alvarez
