Photo Flash: Ballet Manila Presents GISELLE

Ballet Manila, one of the Philippines' major ballet companies, had recently staged the two-act classic ballet "Giselle" at Manila Broadcasting Company's Aliw Theatre, Cultural Center of the Philippines Complex, Pasay City, Manila.  The ballet stars 45-year-old prima ballerina Lisa Macuja-Elizalde in the title role. 

"Giselle" is part of Ms. Elizalde's year-long 25^th anniversary celebration as a professional ballerina.  It is in this dramatic ballet that she debuted as a soloist of the Kirov Ballet in Russia way back in 1984.  She danced the role of the Peasant Pas de Deux in the Russian production. 

"Through decades, Giselle has been performed by some of the world's greatest ballerinas and danseurs. To cite just one example, Margot Fonteyn portrayed Giselle and Rudolf Nureyev, Prince Albrecht, in London's Covent Garden on Feb. 21, 1962. Fonteyn was then 18 years older than Nureyev.

In Ballet Manila's presentation at Aliw Theatre, the age gap is similar: Lisa Macuja-Elizalde, dancing Giselle for the 31st time, is about 20 years older than Rudy de Dios in his debut as Prince Albrecht...

Under Lisa as artistic director and Osias Barroso as ballet master, Ballet Manila's members are evolving into the finest ballerinas and danseurs, achieving technical skill and artistic expressivity to a tremendous degree.

With the frequency of Ballet Manila presentations, each differing from the other, one wonders how the company maintains its superior standards of production and performance, the latter hewing to Kirov's Vaganova method. At 45, Lisa Macuja-Elizalde, its chief proponent still dances with incomparable élan, ineffable grace and incredible stamina, doubtless remaining Ballet Manila's major spectacle," said Rosalinda Orosa, The Philippine Star's art critic.

On Saturday,  July 10, 2010 at 8 p.m., Ballet Manila, together with the Society for Cultural Enrichment Inc. (SCEI) and the Manila Broadcasting Company, will hold a special show featuring 10 of the finest Russian dancers from the Bolshoi, Kirov and Dutch National Ballet companies.  Dubbed as "Today's Stars of the Russian Ballet with Ballet Manila", the one night only event goes onstage at the Aliw Theatre.

The visiting Russian ballerinas and danseurs include Jurgita Dronina, David Galstyan, Yana Selina, Mikhail Lobukhin, Viktoriya Ananyan, Alexander Zhembrovskyy, Marina Mishina, Dmitry Zagrebin, Yelizaveta Cheprasova and Filipp Stepin.

For tickets, call Ticketworld at (632) 891-9999 or visit www.ticketworld.com.ph, or Ballet Manila at (632) 400-0292, 525-5967 or e-mail info@balletmanila.ph.

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