Ballet’s Leading Ladies: Juliet, from playful to passionate child-woman

In a dancing career that spanned three decades, Ballet Manila artistic director Lisa Macuja-Elizalde had the good fortune to portray the most fascinating lead characters to have ever graced the stage. This Women’s Month, we feature a series recalling Lisa’s notes on these iconic female figures – from Don Quixote’s feisty heroine Kitri to Swan Lake’s challenging dual roles of Odette and Odile – paired with choice photos from the Ballet Manila Archives collection. 

Juliet playfully greets her mother, Lady Capulet, in a farewell performance of Romeo and Juliet, 2011. “Juliet is a dream role for any ballerina. She is playful and carefree in the beginning but soon evolves into a passionate, obstinate – even desperate – child-woman the minute she falls in love.”

With my first Romeo, Ou Lu, principal danseur of Beijing’s Central Ballet of China, 1988. “I just love exploring the many facets of Juliet: From how she reacts to Romeo’s first touch and their first kiss, to how she pulls open the bottle of potion and drinks the drug that puts her into a deep sleep.”

In Ballet Manila’s Romeo and Juliet production, 2007.  “Dancing Juliet is quite challenging because it is technically demanding while at the same time, emotionally charged. While the character itself is very young, the role requires maturity and precision from the ballerina.” 

Intimate scene with Ou Lu, Romeo and Juliet tour with the Royal New Zealand Ballet, 1988. “I was so young and inexperienced that I specifically remember a moment in our rehearsal when choreographer Malcholm Burns had to explain how I need to turn my head in Act 3, after pulling the curtains closed, to see my Romeo lying in bed. He said: ‘Now, remember Lisa, you are gazing at your husband, who you have just spent your first night with and he is about to leave you and you might never ever see him again.’ I tried, but I admit that at that time, I just couldn’t relate. My thought balloon during rehearsal was: ‘Research, I need to do some research on how one spends her wedding night!’”

Publicity photo for Philippine Ballet Theater’s Romeo and Juliet, with Osias Barroso, 1994. “My second Juliet was in the version of Atlanta Ballet’s Tom Pazik which was first choreographed on prima ballerina Maniya Barredo. I had grown up quite a bit since New Zealand so I was more satisfied with my portrayal. The Pazik choreography was also a lot more athletic and needed a more solid technique. The spinning was particularly difficult to do with my long ringlet hair flailing all over the place!”

Dancing with Osias Barroso to Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture as played by the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra in An Evening of Tchaikovsky, 2004. “By the time I reached my third version of Juliet, an earlier version by Sergey Vikulov choreographed to the music of Tchaikovsky’s overture, there was no need to over-analyze every step. I could relax and just go with the flow.”

With Rudy De Dios as Romeo in the final scene of Ballet Manila’s Romeo and Juliet, 2007. “I love dying onstage. I have practiced ‘dying’ so many times and experimented with so many of Life’s last lingering looks. Up to now though, I still can’t decide what happens in correct chronology – is it the closing of the eyes, the last gasp of breath, or is it the slump and relaxing of the hand that grips Romeo in a final embrace?”

Farewell to Juliet, Swan Song Series 2011. “For me, the biggest challenge in dancing Juliet is showing her age from a shy, young teenager to a knowing woman to a human being so desperately in love that she kills herself. And to be convincing enough in character that – when she finally plunges that knife into her heart at the end of the ballet – the audience knows that she was a victim who had grown brave enough to decide her own fate.”