The Partner in Pictures
“The chemistry between a ballerina and a danseur comes from trust and this can only be achieved through rehearsals on stage.”
The ballerina and her prince: It’s a fairy-tale moment as Shaz joins Lisa on the opening night of her first full-length choreography, Cinderella.
Even after a standing ovation on a Ballet Manila tour in 1995, principal dancers Lisa and Shaz would rush back to their lodgings to wash their tights and get them dried for the next day’s performance.
Giselle dies in the arms of Albrecht in this scene from Giselle where the two Filipino ballet artists were supported by an all-Russian corps de ballet in Russia.
Shaz and Lisa are seated in business class on a 2016 flight to Jakarta, Indonesia to teach ballet. Despite decades of tours, the pair still enjoyed traveling together.
As co-artistic directors, Lisa and Shaz opened Ballet Manila’s 23rd performance season in 2018 with two shows that each featured a different repertoire of the company’s iconic works.
In 2004, Shaz and Lisa celebrated 16 years of dancing together, a fruitful collaboration that saw them performing on stages in the Philippines and other countries
Shaz said in 2004: “’Yung Lisa Macuja-Osias Barroso tandem parang Guy and Pip. Hindi mo puwedeng palitan. When the younger generation succeeds us, they will be different. They will be who they are, the same way we are us right now.”