Of ballets and ballets and song

Lisa Macuja obliges a fan.

Ballerina ng bayan signs my copy of the program.

Big Mama with the West End Mamas: Ces Campos-Bonner, Gia Macuja-Atchinson and Maya Barredo-Duffy

On their second to the last performance, the ballerinas and balletomanes of Midsummer Night's Dream stand on the sweeping stairs of the Cultural Center of the Philippines lobby to meet the audience for pictures and another round of applause.

Viva Ballet Philippines!

The weekends in the month of heart and arts have become full of trips to shows (visual and performing arts) all over town. But memories of the 21st of February were of a day filled with sensory overload--good thing the shows were all in the boundary of Manila and Pasay cities so getting from one theater to another only took my sister Suzy and me one leisurely stroll. Turns out leisurely wasn't what it was meant to be. We caught the 11 a.m. matinee of West End Mamas, the main act of the palabas "Ballets & Ballads" at Aliw Theater.

Afterwards, we went to the artists' dressing room, largely through the intercession of director Roxanne Lapus who I met in my reporter years at the Philippines Daily Express and interviewed many years after for a cover story on talent managers for The Sunday Times Magazine. 

Roxanne, daughter of couturier Nena Lapus, is one of those memorable persons who crosses one's life briefly but remains embedded in one's memory. I remember her as an Assumption College teacher who has directed romantic comedies and lately, musicals (The Sound of Music had over a hundred performances at Resort World's Newport Theater). For a time she was on top of promoting and marketing shows when the Metropolitan Theater (what a loss there!) still had regular seasons of performances, especially in the late '70s to the '80s, until Vilma Santos's variety show kept it alive as it was sputtering. Last year, Roxanne helmed "The Legends and the Classics," featuring Cecile Licad, Lisa Macuja and Lea Salonga.

That Sunday I overheard her talking to the young dancers after the show and reminding them to overcome their onstage fears once and for all. Words to the effect that if they themselves don't  decide to overcome those fears that make them hesitate and withhold the giving of their best, they will indeed fall on the seventh pirouette or the fifth leap. 

Teacher Roxanne said what she was saying came from a lived life. I couldn't forget her parting lines to those dancers: if you fell in love with a tarantado 30 years ago and you still didn't get over it by moving on and deciding in your mind and heart not to let it happen again, 30 years after you will fall again for a tarantado cut from the same cloth as the one you originally fell for. I wanted to giggle at that one, but it would lessen the authoritativeness in her voice. Besides, the dancers were nodding their heads in agreement the same way I was, too.

Sometimes it only took a brief encounter like that to be reminded of lessons vital to our existence. So thank you, Roxanne, thank you, Lisa , her singing sister Gia who together with Maya Barredo and Ces Campos and Ballet Manila gave it their all.

From Aliw Suzy and I walked towards the CCP with the intention of taking a late lunch first at our favorite Pancake House by Manila Bay. But we detoured to the box office so we could buy our tickets early for the afternoon matinee of Midsummer's Night Dream. It turned out the show was about to start in 15 minutes! The 3 p.m. in my mind was actually 2 p.m. There was time to wolf down a triangle of pizza and a soda and off we went to our seats.

When the curtain went up, everyone went "Ahhhhh!" at the fairy magic of a set. That was how we were transported to a dreamy forest where lovers' quarrels, mischief and mistakes were eventually sorted out till we heard the familiar strains of Mendelssohn used for wedding marches. The danseur who played the crucial role of Puck simply signed my program "Puck."

Somewhere between the two shows, I received an SMS from a Diliman campus-based friend inviting me to watch later in the evening a Noh performance at the old UP Theater. All I could say was thank you, but, Mamma Mia! I was all "culture vultured" out. At least for a day and until the next trip that will transport me out of reality.

Photos by Babeth and Suzy Lolarga

Even legends get the jitters

It may come as a surprise to some that seasoned pianist Cecile Licad, ballerina Lisa Macuja and singer Lea Salonga, who continue to light up stages here and abroad, confess to pre-concert jitters.

A blunt Licad says, “I’m always agitated and nervous before every show since I was seven. But as I get older, I’m less afraid of screwing up things. Everything in life is not perfect so why not make an art of screwing up? I’d ask the presentor if I can have a siling labuyo (hot chili pepper), I eat it. The taste keeps me awake.”

Salonga shares that she paces a lot before a show starts, apart from warming up her throat, to free herself of nervousness. She adds, “I can’t sit still. I go through the blocking and lyrics in my head. I stay hydrated and don’t talk too much. Praying keeps my calm.”

What’s going inside her backstage is like being trapped in a cage. Once she releases the first song onstage, she feels fine.

Licad butts in, “It’s like delivering a baby!”

Macuja goes through a full ballet class, doing stretches, bends and jumps to warm up. She keeps 10 pointe shoes in her bag and tries each one on, mentally assigning a pair to a number or act she is set to do. The shoes are lined up beside her makeup table.

She tries not to lose that body warmth in the theater’s air-conditioning. Seconds before she goes onstage, she takes off her leg warmers and blows air into her shoes, a practice she saw and learned while a student in Russia where it is wintry cold. While going through these rituals, her partner at the moment fidgets and reminds her, ” Lisa, we’re almost on.”

Putting three piano, stage and dance superstars is a historic first that could’ve been realized earlier had not a would-be concert organizer balked. The idea remained with Macuja who felt the dream project is worth producing “before I retire. I have to make it happen and work with these two women,” she says.
She self-disparagingly adds, “Of the three, I’m the one with an early expiration date. If I were on a grocery shelf, I’m the one that’s pushed forward.”

Wearing her other hat as producer, Macuja says the major work was arranging their schedules so they can have two weeks, one dedicated to rehearsals under stage director Roxanne Lapus . The latter refers to them as “the three muses.”

The first time the three got together was at a photo studio where the call time was 10 a.m. They were there promptly at 9:30, put on their makeup and costumes with no fuss. Such was their professionalism that the pictorial ended two hours early.

Licad recalls the immediate chemistry that sparked off when she met the other two, “I don’t know, but they look crazy. Parang lukaret!"

Salonga smiles, adding, “That’s the truth in a nutshell.”

Macuja’s other dream is to “bring (the show) all over the Philippines, even on a world tour to show that the Filipino artists can, that our country is not about corrupt officials.”

Already she is getting inquiries on when a similar show will be mounted, but meantime they’re concentrating energies on “The Legends and the Classics” on March 17 and 18 at the Cultural Center of the Philippines Main Theater.

Lapus, who has directed dinner theater, romantic comedies and pop singers in the past, assures that she understands “the weight of this project.” The program will respect the individual artistry and integrity of the performer and allow each to join the others as duos and trios.

Pleased that the three women have no diva airs, she says a video screen will be used excessively to add as backdrop and there will not be too much talking, save by Lea (and her short spiels). She says, "We want to remove the kasosyalan (familiar socializing) of a mediocre pop concert.”

Licad says of jamming with the two others, “I’ve always been open to new things. When we’re together, we’re always laughing. That’s a good sign. The vibes are good, the food is good. And the makeup’s nice.”

Salonga says, “It’s not rocket science. We’re just three persons doing something together and we each love doing. I’m a quick study with songs so the stuff we will do is something we can do in our sleep.”

She explains that each of their turning-point moment came early in their lives which makes the viewing public think they’ve been around a long time. “It’s about finding your joy, finding what it is you’re supposed to do. For others, it’s a harder road. It’s finding what it is, and you don’t want to let it go.”-- Elizabeth Lolarga

Originally published by VERA Files and Yahoo Philippines on March 9, 2012