UP COOP BESIEGED!

It’s highly unfair for the UP Administration to charge the UP Coop more than a million pesos for the use of the land in the latter’s operations. The law on Cooperatives expressly states in its Section2 that:



Section 2. Declaration of Policy. – It is the declared policy of the State to foster the creation and growth of cooperatives as a practical vehicle for promoting self-reliance and harnessing people power towards the attainment of economic development and social justice. The State shall encourage the private sector to undertake the actual formation and organization of cooperatives and shall create an atmosphere that is conducive to the growth and development of these cooperatives.
Toward this end, the Government and all its branches, subdivisions, instrumentalities and agencies shall ensure the provision of technical guidance, financial assistance and other services to enable said cooperatives to develop into viable and responsive economic enterprises and thereby bring about a strong cooperative movement that is free from any conditions that might infringe upon the autonomy or organizational integrity of cooperatives.

Unfortunately, instead of encouraging the growth of the UP Coop, it has chosen to impose a land rent that is atrociously detrimental to the operations of the Coop. It seems that whoever is running the community affairs Department of UP does not have the right information on how a coop is run and how the State must support its existence.

The UP Coop is just one of the many coops in the country struggling to survive despite the fierce competition that commercial businesses give in the economic field. I have been a member of this organization since the 60's knowing that for every centavo I would spend to buy a product, I would get something in return -- a dividend and other benefits.

But you see, the UP Administration has suddenly experienced getting largesse from the many uses of land in Diliman from big corporations and even government entities who rent the land on a BOT scheme, or similar arrangements. And so every squre meter of land in UP Diliman is now being eyed for commercial interests.

Actually, the use of UP should be for educational purposes. But what is educational about a junk food restaurant sitting on UP land? The government land has been converted to mercantile pursuits so that the mind of the students are being turned commercial too. How sad.

The education period of students should be spent on broadening their minds on the possibilities for their future participation, theoretical and moral, in the bigger world of social, political, economic and cultural (and spiritual) developments, it is now being turned into just pure education for knowledge sake.

UP is no longer the bastion of critical thinking but of accommodation to what is existing. Instead of being shapers of unique inventive knowledge and strong standpoints that will confront issues and conflicts with solutions for a peaceful, just and humane world, it is now the prime mover for commercial pursuits.

The UP Coop should be saved and protected as it caters to the market needs of students, faculty, staff, and other residents in UP. If the coop has members that are already graduated, not residing in UP,as well as non-UP members, that should not be taken against the Coop since the Law states that cooperatives should have open and voluntary membership.

Also, all the members have not voiced out any contrary opinion to the acceptance of non-UP as members of the Coop, so why should the UP administration impose that at all? Is it not the case that the Coop shall have the autonomy to decide for itself who should be its members?

Secondly, the fact that the UP coop is still a coop, then the State, the UP administration is compelled to render support to its operations.

I do look forward to a new set of officials of the UP Administration in 2011 so that we can feel and see a new educational setting -- one that is theoretically challenging and adept at preparing students for stronger perception of the people's problems, and for deep participation in the socio-political processes of the country; as well as humane in its approach to dealing with different constituents in its premises.

Despite the siege of the UP Administration, the officials of the UP Coop are bent on carrying the torch all the way to helping the members get their money's worth. Actually, they have just assumed their posts after a gruelling investigation of anomalous operations of the past administration.

Keep on!

SAMUT-SARI

The word "elderly" has been deleted in favor of 'senior citizens" in our country. I have misgivings about that the latter. It implies that there are "junior citizens" which then makes it a biased term. Why should the idea of the latter intrude into our concern with the elderlies?

Those who crafted laws apparently are mocking the state of the elderlies. This is why when I take a public vehicle and say "senior" inevitably the other passengers look at me. And the youth have taken cognizance of this discrimination by riding on it.

I was at Mercury drug store in Kamuning and the sales guy, a certain Marlon refused to answer my question as to how much Vitamin B Complex was. Three times I had to ask him before he would give me an answer. But when a young woman approached him, he readily answered. I pointed this out to him and he gave a lame answer that he was still attending to another customer.

As I was leaving, I told him, "Maybe you are afraid of old age. Don't be afraid of physical disintegration. Because growing old without wisdom is worse." The other senior customers looked at me as I mentioned that. I hope the owners of Mercury would read this.

There are other forms of discrimination. At SM Centerpoint, the janitors hover around me with their mops, as if I have to move out of the premises right away. I think the administration does not do this per se but the guards who are connected with Crame -- as their companies have to get their licenses from them.

So you see Folks, when we have to be true to our politics, we meet all kinds of obstacles especially when we grow old. Our country is not a place for retirement -- except when you have dollars, as the elderly foreign tourists who are being enticed to retire here.

****

I watched Clash of the Titans film, and found something wrong with the word Hades, as the name of the god from the netherworld. Hades in mythology is the name of the underworld and the god there is Pluto. I wonder why the filmmakers changed the name.

Also as I watch those digitally-made animation films, as "How To Train Your Dragon," I find too many objects on the screen, which make them too clattered up. I hope that the filmmakers would use fewer figures, and concentrate on just plain storytelling visually.

Going back to the elderlies, I hope that before Mayor Belmonte gets out of the mayorship, he would allow us to view films at any day and any time as Makati provides her constituents. Quezon City is the richest city in all of NCR and there is no reason for it to be able to be more generous to those who have contributed a lot in making this country a better place to live in, democratically.

SUNDAY REFLECTION: Holier than thou, Oh no please...

SUNDAY REFLECTION
By Wilhelmina S. Orozco

Many colors of religions exist in our midst. We are being deluged with different views of life, of the spirit. The Catholic Church which is too rigid in her approach to one’s being religious and that is attending its rituals every Sunday, reciting prayers monotonously and in routine, and talking to God indirectly through priests has caused many people to seek other paths. So now we have so many nativistic-style worship: Ang Dating Daan, Oras ng Himala, Mike Velarde’s El Shaddai, Brother Eddie Villanueva’s Jesus is Lord Movement, and many, many more. A foreign-inspired group is The Evangelical Ark Mission International headed by a Nigerian, Tony Marioghae who delivers truly philosophical sermons full of allusions to the Biblical teachings. They have drawn many Filipino women and men to their wings because of their down-to-earth treatment of problems, both individual and social. In every group whose worship I have attended I always find a reference to political leaders, for them to care for the people’s welfare and not their own. Thus relevance to the times is the underlying theme of the latter groups.

Yet I cannot help but be shocked that sometimes the Bible can be used by some pastors to hit at those who have staunch political beliefs, who have their own views of society. Instead of making the worship place pristine, free from political clutter, they bring in the scams of politics, make them go up the stage and try to appear as religious as the people attending there. This is I think a desecration of the meaning of worship.

Worship means service to God, a time for reflection on one’s existence on earth and how relations with oneself, with others, and with the earth is according to the wisdom and teachings of Jesus Christ and the Bible. Instead, sometimes, we have been treated to a political feast, a kind of cursillo of these politicians whose stints can hardly be called spiritual but even be labeled anti-human.

Look at this former MMDA chairman now running for vice president. What did he do during his time? He polluted the streets with his ill-designed foul-smelling toilets for men and made the men feel grand that they could still urinate in public but in style. Instead of building toilets underground where people, both women and men could go down and urinate in clinically clean toilets, he put up urinals for everyone to see in pink colors.

What else did he do? He put up signs on the streets, “Bawal tumawid dito, nakamamatay.” Thus now, the Commonwealth Avenue is declared a death zone because of so many road accidents occurring then. Ironically, the victims are the ones being charged and labeled ignorant of the laws. Why, in the sixties, the signs we would see are: “Pedestrians crossing, slow down,” or “Children crossing, slow down.” Now the people have to race with the cars and vehicles whose drivers drive with impunity. I was nearly run over one time by an oncoming jeep while crossing a pedestrian lane, imagine! That concept that vehicle drivers are the kings of the roads has seeped into the minds of the under-educated drivers that they have the only right to the use of the roads and in their sweet time.

Now tell me, does this candidate deserve a minute of my attention after what he had done to bastardize metroManila? No, Sir, no Madam. He deserves to take a sabbatical leave and give more love to his overly self-sacrificing and intelligent wife. Or maybe give her a break and let her be with a more people-oriented partner.

In a former worship place I had attended, a pastor even started mentioning dogs in his homily – in allusion probably to media watchdogs – as I am from media and used to have a column then, criticizing election cheating. While reciting the homily, he would look down, probably feeling guilty that he is misusing the place of worship for something earthly, even hellish, instead of divine.

The worst I have heard is this reference to a Biblical woman so called unclean because she was menstruating and had touched Jesus Christ as a wish to have her sins washed away. Of all situations about sinning, a reference had to be made of this particular section of the Bible making it highly suspect that the one giving the sermon was hitting at someone in the audience. In effect it became a judgment time for one’s “sins” of choosing to protect one’s freedom in political thinking.

Now where is that soulful character of attendees of worship? Where are the so-called sons and daughters of God there? No, criticism of the powers-that-be is a no-no in religious organizations.

A place of worship where there is no freedom to think, speak and act for all – both women and men – is bound to fail and would lose its attendees. It will only gather the conservatives, those who favour the status quo, of being recognized in the worship place, albeit how narrow, for fear of expanding their spheres of influence, of treading new grounds where they would wager for chances for social recognition,.

Yet members of the group suffer from individual problems not taken care of by the worship leader– like one having an alcoholic husband, another having a domineering and oppressive employer, and others from spouses who hardly have time to give them that caring and loving attention so necessary for keeping the relationship alive because of their businesses or other concerns. The personal is only touched upon in reference to sins that are mostly for cleansing the souls of men – like going to prostitution dens, etc.

Yes, despite the proliferation of these religious groups, there is a corresponding bigger presence of nightclubs with young women offering their physical bodies as come-ons to customers by the doors. It is as if worship could always be done every Sunday and then Monday to Friday is freedom from the spiritual shackles of the Biblical teachings.

No, worship has to be something else. Worship should remain as worship, as a study and reflection on the teachings of the Bible, specifically of Christ, as they relate to one’s life, without being judgmental. Worship should gather people in order to celebrate life that God has given us and point to the way we must give order and joy to every minute of it while interacting with other travelers in this life. May be this is all very cerebral, but then, if I can experience it and others I know can, why can’t worship organizations do the same?

No one, no organization has the sole prerogative to speak about how life should be led, nor to be judged of one’s acts. Everyone has the right to judge only oneself, and not others unless the situation were legal in character, meaning to say there has been a violation of societal order. But I accept prophecies – showing how life should be, how everyone should become, in order that the eyes and hands of God shall remain more kindly at us all throughout our lifetime, in order that God may continue to protect us from those who would harm us, help and guide us in our day-to-day lives so that we may reflect and live according to Christian teachings, and thus guarantee our place in heaven among angels and non-sinners all.

Now the question: should all political leaders be spiritually-attuned? Can an atheist not be a good leader? Must one be a theist in order to be leader? At the moment, many are saying that due to the highly corrupt situation we are in, then a need arises to have spiritual leaders, those who are sensitive to the physical life and the inner life, or the other-worldly. In other words, leaders must be geared towards being reflective all the time if their acts conform to Christian and other spiritual values that glorify God and humanity.

We must remember that the People’s Republic of China shuns all talks of religion, yet it is one of the most prosperous countries in the world. The Soviet Union was also one before it broke up and yet it achieved its objective of raising with the west in modernizing her society. In other words, religion has and had nothing to do with how society was being run.

We could probably leave this hanging and let the people provide their own opinions on this matter. As for now, I prefer having a small space wherever I can and reflect on my own life, without anyone telling me, “Hey I am holier than you are.”

SING GIRL, SING!

By Wilhelmina S. Orozco

How do we let a singer sing and sing on though in pain? When we find a good singer it almost seems like a crime to have intermissions or even to have other people singing instead of her. This was what I had felt when I watched Girl Valencia do her gig at the Renaissance Hotel. She was hot, she was cool, she was warm, and all over. No one could ever dispute that she is in command of her craft. Yet, deep inside her she was trying to contain her pain because of which she lost an ounce of energy for singing.

Second to the eldest, Girl is daughter to Boy Valencia and Tess Ragaza. Her father is an inventor and now successfully selling his original hair grower product, EZ Grow in the many malls in MetroManila which is guaranteed to grow hair even on bald pates and thinning eyebrows.

Girl’s mom, Tess noted her inclination in singing while she was still young at five years old. She likes to narrate that Girl used to ape the singing style of chanteuse, Pilita Corrales at family gatherings whence she would sing in “liyad-liyad” style or bending her body backwards. “I used to hold only a hairbrush then and would sing ala-Pilita, ” said Girl. Her parents laughed at the sight of a toddler eager to act like a grown-up singing with gusto. Moreover, she is said to have a habit of humming a song, “ Hum daw ako ng hum. Siguro yun ang simula na magko-compose na ako.” (I used to hum a lot. Maybe that was the start of my ability to compose.)

Instead of a music course, Girl instead finished a communication course at the Ateneo de Manila University. However, the music bug bit her again after graduation. In 2002, She won an international award called the UNESCO Peace Prize for her piece, “Breaking Barriers” sang by a Japanese choir. The prize was not enough for her because the song had not been sung in the Philippines yet. “I produced a minus one to have it heard in the country. Vocal arrangement was done by Gino Torres, while the soloist was Ryan Cayabyab’s son together with the Ateneo Grade School. This piece must have encouraged the Jesuit priests to produce a full album which contained my own piece,” she said.

Another award of Girl is her Best Sound Track nomination for a piece entitled “Pangako Ikaw Lang,” sang by Regine Velasquez
which she composed for the film, “Tanging Mahal.”

Now a member of the Filipino Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers or Filscap, Girl is a noted singer and composer. However, when she attends the meeting there, one would see a different Girl from the singer at the Hotel Remonde. Instead, she is the backpacking “teenager” in sleeveless shirt, and sandals sans airs at all and chatting with fellow composers.

Actually, Girl experiences what other female night workers suffer from. “I have to look ordinary when I go out of the hotel after my stint because many times the pedestrians would whistle or look at me with lewd eyes as if I were a slut looking for dough,” said Girl.

Girl asserts that this shows that women having night jobs are really not that safe from prying eyes and predators and the authorities have to be alerted to provide them stronger security as women could be physically vulnerable all the time.

Learning the ropes so to speak – how to sing in public, much more so how to deal with the nitty-gritty of getting paid well are things imbibed through experience in this country. Each singer who has worked in show business would know that most of the time, academics do not prepare one to have a stable career nor get paid well at the beginning or even till the end of one’s contract, if there is any at all. But to Girl it was quite easy. Help for her to refine her singing career came so easily from the family and friends.

One time, she auditioned at a bar but was found to be ill prepared, although her singing voice was good for the place. Romy San Mateo, the pianist who auditioned her was generous enough to let her hang around at the bar where he was playing and in between intermissions would make her sing after just to acclimatize her to public attention. After each song, he would prompt her on and tell her how to improve her singing style. Through Romy, she learned how to be discriminating about the songs in her repertoire, how to sing with a lilt, how to jazz up a piece, and even how to deal with certain groups of customers in the hotel.

Apart from singing, Girl has learned a lot from her mentor. Her great sense of public relations make the customers feel comfortable with her, to the point of going up the stage and singing with her, whereas they would not do so readily. Actually she has captured the hearts of many who probably wish in their private moments to be a professional singer like her with an audience that truly appreciate her art and not just companion-to- the-bar friends to give her a moral boost.

At the open mike session, whereby any customer could sing a song, Girl would be standing by or singing along and providing a counterpoint or just plain second voice to the melody. Every second looks like she is enjoying the performance of the customer even if the person cannot carry a consistent pitch.

Girl is fully concentrated when singing dinner songs that allow people to eat and laugh heartily while she is up there onstage. Although the whole bar is reeking with smoke, still she would be found there entertaining musically or smiling away as if everything was so fine. Sometimes, some customers would laugh uninhibitedly after a bit of drinking but the noise from that circumstance does not bother Girl so much. To her such things go with the trade.

However, to this author, perhaps a rule should be put up at entertainment bars that respect for the singer should be accorded, foremost of which is not to smoke at that place as that could destroy the singer’s voice. Being able to pay for one’s dinner is not justification to disrespect the place and the singer.

Furthermore smoking should not be allowed at bars because it is really detrimental to the health of the smoker and the non-smoker. A singer fell into an illness when cancer struck her after singing for many years at a smoky bar. People would not attribute it to the smoke but studies have shown that nicotine strikes any part of the house, even the ovaries and could produce ovarian cysts or cancer itself due to its being a toxic substance.

Having a regular gig would not give Girl the lifestyle she wants. So she also goes into events organizing producing shows such as the one held at the Conspiracy bar, the “Tribute to Ella Fitzgerald,” and at the Exchange Bar, “Tribute to Frank Sinatra.” Being a great organizer with people skills, she gathered other singers to put up the show with her and was able to have standing room concerts, thus making a good business for the bar and for herself. Here Girl shows her business acumen, not only musical skills.

Girl has made her first album and is now preparing for the next. What is commendable about this is that she is a one woman over-all artist and businesswoman –when recording an album, she is the composer, singer, producer and distributor all at the same time. In this regard, she is able to control the kind of songs that will come out and the earnings that she will get, unlike others who are at the mercy of sometimes unscrupulous producers and distributors.

She has learned the trade well and needs another break in the international scene whereby her music has already been recognized. Sing Girl, sing!

David Brooks, NYT on the Mind

Over the past few years, researchers have found that the brain is capable of creating new connections and even new neurons all through life. While some mental processes — like working memory and the ability to quickly solve math problems — clearly deteriorate, others do not. Older people retain their ability to remember emotionally nuanced events. They are able to integrate memories from their left and right hemispheres. Their brains reorganize to help compensate for the effects of aging.
A series of longitudinal studies, begun decades ago, are producing a rosier portrait of life after retirement. These studies don’t portray old age as surrender or even serenity. They portray it as a period of development — and they’re not even talking about über-oldsters jumping out of airplanes.
People are most unhappy in middle age and report being happier as they get older. This could be because as people age they pay less attention to negative emotional stimuli, according to a study by the psychologists Mara Mather, Turhan Canli and others.
Gender roles begin to merge. Many women get more assertive while many men get more emotionally attuned. Personalities often become more vivid as people become more of what they already are. Norma Haan of the University of California, Berkeley, and others conducted a 50-year follow-up of people who had been studied while young and concluded that the subjects had become more outgoing, self-confident and warm with age.
The research paints a comforting picture. And the nicest part is that virtue is rewarded. One of the keys to healthy aging is what George Vaillant of Harvard calls “generativity” — providing for future generations. Seniors who perform service for the young have more positive lives and better marriages than those who don’t. As Vaillant writes in his book “Aging Well,” “Biology flows downhill.” We are naturally inclined to serve those who come after and thrive when performing that role.
The odd thing is that when you turn to political life, we are living in an age of reverse-generativity. Far from serving the young, the old are now taking from them. First, they are taking money. According to Julia Isaacs of the Brookings Institution, the federal government now spends $7 on the elderly for each $1 it spends on children.
Second, they are taking freedom. In 2009, for the first time in American history, every single penny of federal tax revenue went to pay for mandatory spending programs, according to Eugene Steuerle of the Urban Institute. As more money goes to pay off promises made mostly to the old, the young have less control.
Third, they are taking opportunity. For decades, federal spending has hovered around 20 percent of G.D.P. By 2019, it is forecast to be at 25 percent and rising. The higher tax rates implied by that spending will mean less growth and fewer opportunities. Already, pension costs in many states are squeezing education spending.
In the private sphere, in other words, seniors provide wonderful gifts to their grandchildren, loving attention that will linger in young minds, providing support for decades to come. In the public sphere, they take it away.
-- David Brooks, NYT, 3 February 2010

WHEN HANGING BALLET SHOES

BY WILHELMINA S. OROZCO

How should we treat an artist-icon whose time is slowly eroding her capacities to perform? How should we make her still be functional and provide good presentations that are worthy of emulation of the younger set?

These are the dilemmas facing any fan of Liza Macuja who just performed her last role as Dulcinea in Don Quixote Liza pirouetted for the last 30 times on stage in perfect shape, form, and flawlessly, not even losing her balance at the end of each step. Is that not an amazing feat, for some in her 45th year.

Yet her performance left me feeling cold, knowing that she is slowly retiring from stage as a ballet dancer and the Philippines shall not have anyone who could equal her performances in many classical pieces that have brought fame to her not only locally but internationally.

And so, with that last performance of Liza, so many things cropped up in my mind. If in Tibet and outlying areas in Nepal, people could live beyond a hundred and yet still carry sacks of rice, or bundles of firewood on their backs, why can’t our inventors research on what could prolong a dancer’s muscles to make it still supple, and her bones strong enough to withstand all types of steps? Why can’t the government pour so much resources on research on how to make the human body almost un-aging so that there would not be so much need for cosmetic surgeries that have only superficially restored the self-esteem or he patients but never their respect for themselves. For how can an artificial reconstruction of the face and the human torso ever be a substitute for natural shape and form?

In our midst though, lots of herbal supplements have been imported promising many uses, among which is to retard aging. That is very good advertising but the efficaciousness of these supplements must withstood the test of time. Or else they could just be products of marketing gimmicks to waylay many gullible and insecure individuals.

Now going back to Liza, of course, she can continue being the impresario of Ballet Manila the productions of which have earned the company a good label of being the only one to produce full classical pieces like Don Q, Carmen, and most recently even Pilipino pieces like Mga Kuwento ni Lola Basyang. She can also conduct classes, deliver talks, write long pieces on dancing and being a dancer as she is now doing and which I find truly admirable as many dancers are not inclined to verbalize, much more so write about their lives. Maybe the discipline that Liza got in Russia had introduced her to the idea that an artist has to be compleat – not just honed in one skill.

However, I remember Margot Fonteyn performing Romeo and Juliet or was it Swan Lake at age 65 here in the country and her body was as light and supple as if she were only aged 28 or so. She should actually reveal her secrets for having done that feat and so impress to other dancers that age is not really a liability, so long as one is focused on her or his career.

Well, actually, even actors and actresses, more so the latter suffer from social stigma once they reach 40 and above. The roles they get are either mother, witch, or some other second-place role that could be forgettable unless the scriptwriter and director are kind enough to give a better depiction, showing more challenging scenes for them to express their skills. Actors are much more lucky as there is a social notion that they become like wine that age as the years go by. Hence, we have Eddie Garcia who is as busy as ever performing different kinds of aging men-roles, Dr. ___________, stage director whose dignified looks earn him highly regarded roles; and others, like Dante Rivero and even those legislator ex-actors who are able to wangle roles in many films showcasing their physique and ability to ride horses with agility.

But Gloria Romero suffered much as her roles are sometimes pathetic, that of being a ghost grandmother visiting an antique house; one time she was even a witch, and another time, a crazy woman amidst a family setting. Nova Villa gets forgettable roles on TV, while Dina Bonnevie hardly appears nowadays which is unfair as she is one of the intelligent actresses in town.

Anyway, Liza has been able to carve her own niche, not only in ballet, with her own studio and auditorium, but also raise the level of appreciation of the art amongst the Filipino people who are used to the regular predictable fares on TV. She has been able to get thousands of audience for her shows, mostly students who could be required to write a review for their classes.

Liza is also artistic director and producer of her many shows thus she is able to put her own stamp on her productions which after all are characterized by mostly flawless steps and complete with emotional gut-wrenching scenes most of the time. By the way, her 25th anniversary was simply unbeatable as she was able to essay excerpts from many productions including those seemingly endless pirouetting from right to left stage, and/or spinning in one place as if it were the most natural thing for a dancer to do.

Nonetheless, we hope that Liza could bring us another “Liza Macuja” look-alike approximating her perfect performances, and thus making the Filipino people continue to appreciate the art without end. For after all the art of dancing should not end at all when the ballet shoes are hanged.

(LATEST NEWS: LIZA IS TAKING ON A MOTHER ROLE IN HER LATEST BALLET PRODUCTION. SIGH, WE CAN REST ASSURED THAT WE CAN STILL VIEW HER PERFORM.)

PHOTO BY JIM KELLY

DANCING ICON OF THE WORLD

By Wilhelmina S. Orozco



Dancing for 25 years is no joke especially when it is ballet. Lisa Macuja-Elizalde the prima ballerina and creator of Ballet Manila (BM) celebrated her anniversary with a grand program showcasing the highlights of her ballet dancing from year 1984 when she graduated from the Russian Ballet Academy to the present.



Way back in the 70’s classical ballet was considered dance for the elite, as lessons were expensive and most of the students belonged to the middle and upper classes. Moreover, it was regarded as colonial since its roots are European, with the costumes very much un-Filipino, the tutus showing the legs, albeit stockinged, and the arms of female dancers in open display. Yet ballet was viewed as a high form of dance, compared to the rock and roll and boogie-woogie steps in vogue then. It was also considered a great ambition of dancers to study ballet in foreign countries, or to join international companies as the audience was not readily available then.



But today, through the efforts of Lisa, ballet has been introduced to the youth, especially students from public schools who are given free entrance most of the time or reduced rates of tickets in order to savor a story that has literary qualities through dance and music, and with a story.



Lisa’s story of 25 years is unfolded through screen projections of her pictures and videos together with her family, beginning with her as a toddler and then being trained to dance ballet here and in Russia. The images are well designed, not cut-and-dried projection but rather dancing on screen as well, dissolving and shifting positions as they contain Lisa dancing different characters upon her graduation from the famous Leningrad’s Vaganova Choreographic Institute in famous plays like The Nutcracker Suite, Don Quixote, and Carmen, among others, then segueing to her onstage dancing excerpts from them. Then when Lisa is on stage, the screen turns into scenes of nature, snowflakes falling on the mountains, a lake with moving swans, silhouetted trees where red petals fall, or an English scenery of that Balcony in Romeo and Juliet. Other projections include only the black and white images of pointed toes shifting from left to right, upper and lower screens.



What made ballet an easy field for Lisa is her what she calls her “deep love for the classics.” The classics would be those stories that contain complicated plots and relationships among characters which require intelligent reading as well. Translated as dance libretto, these classics would prove to be especially difficult, because instead of words, the ideas in them have to be translated physically, through dance, costumes, sets, and music – in other words, a realization of the stories onstage.



How did Lisa make ballet an appreciated art in the country? In the 80’s she dreamed of popularizing ballet, of having a wider audience. She wanted “visibility in media.” So she immersed herself in various public appearances -on TV shows, pop concerts and lately even malls. She even appeared in a print ad showing her leaping with a split. She also danced ballet to pop tunes familiar to the ears of the TV audience thus imprinting her presence, and of course her personality in their minds. Her winning ways – not looking tired after dancing, of always smiling and not showing any airs at all of being in a high class dance field, captured the hearts and minds of the public who then gathered that ballet is after all an easy and a happy field, and therefore worthwhile watching.



Eventually, she grew tired of these kinds of public exposure and so turned to more serious endeavors, that of putting up a ballet studio and a theatre where she could present the plays that she wants to be produced.



Perfect form

As a dancer, Lisa exhibits that perfect form and exact timing of steps that are sometimes too unbelievable for a petite female dancer to possess. Her movements shift without jagged lines, whether starting on toes, coming down on the floor and then leaping up to the arms of a male dancer. In one adagio, she is carried on the shoulders of one who then twirls her from his left to right shoulders and back as if she were just a plate being shifted around. In another scene she is brought up by male dancers on their shoulders and then in another, she reaches to her lover in the scene tumbling down and then with her legs on air they move together to hint at lovemaking. The most breathtaking steps that she takes are those pirouettes done 8 to 30 times on toes and even moving from one end of the stage to the other without her showing any ounce of dizziness. (These spinning steps earned her lots of applause from the audience of that presentation on October 11, 2009) In all these, Lisa appears like a feather leaping, flying, soaring, and being held by sensitive hands. Her toes falling on the floor is hardly heard nor does it create noise that could distract the attention of the audience from the story of the dance.



Now what makes Lisa a consummate artist? One can glean this from the small steps and movements that she takes to those of leaps and bounces as she dances with a male dancer or several groups. Lisa’s Carmen is full of love and sensuality, apart from her wearing a black negligee with her half-bare lover. The twist of her hip to the left indicates her sexy bearing hinting at her profession as a prostitute. In her solo dancing of an Original Pilipino Music or OPM, Lisa is able to show the angst, the hankering for involvement to the tune of “Somewhere in Time” played on the violin by Robert Atchison. She projects her desire for company in the way she wraps her arms around her body and then by the way her arms would flail in the air a few times revealing the emptiness of being without her lover yet also bearing that unrequited or requited love. She also projects that hesitancy to ask her absent lover to return in her movements showing one foot stepping forward and then back, and then the motion repeated, as if wanting and not wanting in the song “Sana’y Maulit Muli.” In all her dances, Lisa is able to present the whole gamut of human emotions from happiness (as Odine in Swan Lake), to sadness (OPM songs) to longing (as Juliet in Romeo and Juliet) and even sensual feelings (as Carmen).



Then all the other ingredients of the presentation are well chosen, from the costumes, to the screen settings, and even the souvenir program which contains not only the briefs about the dancers and guest teachers like Tatiana Udalenkova of the Russian Ballet Academy, St. Petersburg, Russia, who has come to the country to give ballet lessons at BM, and Rober Atchison, English violinist who played touching the classical and OPM music to which Lisa danced, Luz Fernandez, the Lola Basyang of radio, Gia Macuja who has acted lead roles of Nala, in The Lion King, and Gigi and Ellen in Miss Saigon, both presented in England, and other individuals who contributed to the success of the presentation. The generous spaces devoted to the artists’ biography, no matter how brief, reflect the high regard of BM to them, an aim that is worthwhile copying by every cultural presentation.



The culminating points of the anniversary show Lisa and her lover in the play, Prinsipe ng Mga Ibon, based on the story by Severino Reyes retold by Christine Bellen, and illustrated by Panch Alcaraz, standing on a box that flies from the stage to the back of the theatre with the song “Lipad” composed by Jesse Lasaten. A little later, she emerges from the same but now dressed all white and coming down as if flying to be with all the dancers on stage. There Lisa draws a standing ovation from the audience who clapped seemingly without end and stopped only when the curtains fell onstage.



Yet, Lisa is also aware of the travails of her profession, where creeping age can cramp the style and eventually deaden the dancer’s artistic aspirations. She gives this reason for being on top of her field: “One of the reasons I was able to maintain my active career in dancing is that I have a very strong constitution. I rarely get sick…get injured. I have maintained my body and a lot of it has to do with the ballet classes I take, and the training I had with the Vaganova method which begins with 1 ½ hours of strong technical combinations and steps.”



Actually her strength and perseverance are extraordinary as exhibited very well when she danced Swan Lake in Cuba after only a week of rehearsal under the direction of Alicia Alonzo. Then, in this particular presentation, she showed great stamina, dancing from scene to scene, changing costumes, getting into the emotional make-up of every character that she is supposed to portray, within 3 hours of the program. Viewing her is being with someone with a great muscle strength, strong respiratory system and a really deep love of dance and theatre, firstly, as an aesthetic endeavor and secondly, as a profession.



The repertoire of Ballet Manila include full length performances of Swan Lake, Don Quixote, The Nutcracker, Giselle, La Bayadere, Romeo and Juliet, Carmen, Le Corsaire, and “contemporary Filipino ballet pieces by some of the country’s most distinguished choreographers.” This makes the assertion of Lisa that Ballet Manila is the only Filipino company that can “capably stage a full classical repertoire in any given concert season.”



Discipline and blessings of having a supportive family and her own company have made Lisa what she is now. Her company has all the necessary facilities needed to support any production, from rehearsal studios, to ballet books and video as well as music library, a warehouse for costumes and equipment, living quarters, and of course, the administrative, logistics and marketing staff. The environment is there for any dancer to make use of to deepen one’s understanding of any role to be played and danced.



In turn Lisa shares her success by giving scholarships, free ballet education to public elementary and high school students under the Ballet Manila School. She also has directed the Artists’ Welfare Project Inc., an NGO that “guarantees welfare benefits to all its artist-members.”



Truly, the country has a gem of a dancer in Lisa, the best that the country has produced in the whole history of dance. She exhibits not only a firm grasp of the ballet techniques but also a deep understanding of the meaning of every story that is presented, every line of a song that accompanies her dance, a real “storyteller on toes,” (as Lisa would say of her company, Ballet Manila). She has shown that the Filipina dancer can excel and even garner international acclaim given proper training and in her case, Russian training, as well as preserving her roots as a Filipina. That ability to put emotions into her dances is a product of her being a “kababayan” as we are known to be sensitive to feelings and thoughts, our own and those of others’. Lisa credits her husband Fred Elizalde of being a strong pillar in her ascent to success as she expressed in her Sunday radio program over DZRH while being interviewed by Ruth Abao, “In fact I would classify my life as a dancer in this way ‘before and after Fred.” The latter has given her his wholehearted and financial support for her to give expression to her dancing talents and abilities as well as her director capabilities. Yet, despite her being onstage most of the time, she remains a devoted mother to their children and a grateful wife which she always showed by thanking Fred who happens to sit among the audience every time she plays.



Osias Barroso, BM Artistic Associate and Ballet Master, says it all, Lisa is the “ ‘Ballerina of the People’ who will dance anywhere as long as there’s a floor for her to dance on.”



Maybe there is really something about dreaming that can make an individual reach the highest of heights of success. Let us add to the accolades, Lisa is also the “Ballet Icon Dancer of the World.”



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