Prima Ballerina Lisa Macuja visits The Park Club
Ballet students of the Park Club were invited to a talk by a real Prima Ballerina about the foundations of classical ballet which was followed by a demonstration dance.
Lisa Macuja, Prima Ballerina of Ballet Manila and also Director of the company graced us with her presence. With the face, grace and physique a young girl, Lisa completely captivated the audience. She spoke movingly about being the first foreigner to become a member of the legendary Kirov Ballet and her training at the Academy of Russian Ballet in St. Petersburg. She recounted her first year in communist Russia as being the hardest time, experiencing temperatures of minus 40 degrees; at that point she did not speak any Russian and she shared a dormitory, kitchen and single bathroom with sixteen other student ballerinas! Through determination and passion, she excelled in Russian classical ballet.
She was then invited by Sir Peter Wright to become Principal Dancer of the Sadler’s Wells (now the Royal Ballet); but she chose to form her own ballet company back in the Philippines, Ballet Manila.
After an engaging talk there were plenty of Q&A’s from the children and mothers. It went on for a while until one student, Eva Kynaston, sensibly asked "When are you going to dance?" "Good question" Lisa replied! Lisa then danced on pointe a piece from her current repertoire ‘East meets West’.
Everyone who attended the event found Lisa both extremely interesting and wonderfully enchanting and we are sure the event will stay in the minds of the young dancers for a very long time.