Lisa Macuja, Cecile Licad and Lea Salonga First Class Filipinas

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Source: http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/353939/lisa-macuja-cecile-licad-and-lea-salonga

Lisa Macuja, Cecile Licad and Lea Salonga

First Class Filipinas

By Ronald S. Lim, Jaser A. Marasigan, and Ivy Lisa F. Mendoza
March 11, 2012, 10:29am


The project was initially called ‘’Three Divas’’, a working title definitely worthy of the world-class stature of these three artists. And three divas were what Students and Campuses Bulletin was expecting when we were granted this exclusive, no holds-barred interview with them.

But much to our surprise, there was none of the diva air that we were fearing about. In fact, the interview was moved an hour and a half earlier because the pictorial was going at a pace faster than everyone expected. For one, the artists arrived half an hour earlier, proceeding to their assigned corners for the requisite make-up and styling.

Like clockwork, the pictorial proceeded sans any hitch. They smiled, posed, laughed, poked fun at each other, changed clothes, smiled some more, and it was a wrap sooner than expected.

And there we were, witnesses to how the ice was broken among Lea Salonga, Lisa Macuja and Cecile Licad, when they finally met for the first time, as a prelude to a concert unlike any that has been seen on Philippine stage.

On March 17 and 18, at the Cultural Center of the Philippines, these three accomplished Filipino artists will come together for “The Legends and the Classics,” showcasing their individual talents and a fusion of song, music and dance into one perfect harmony.

Lea, Cecile and Lisa are kindred spirits. Sharing a passion for the performing arts, they all started young and have achieved unparalleled heights in their respective careers. The three even took us back to the beginnings of their outstanding careers – back when Cecile Licad was wearing a matching dress and underwear with raffles at her first ever piano concerto with no less than a full orchestra; when Lea Salonga, then seven, played one of the children in a production of “The King and I’’ at the CCP; when a teenage Lisa Macuja endured cold, Communist Russia and a language barrier to learn ballet, the Vaganova way.

Cecile Licad has been called “a pianist’s pianist” by The New Yorker. Her large repertoire as an orchestral soloist spans the classical works of Mozart and Beethoven, the Romantic literature of Brahms, Chopin, Tchaikovsky, Schumann and Rachmaninoff, and on to the 20th century compositions of Debussy, Ravel, Shostakovich, Prokofiev and Bartok.

Lisa Macuja, Ballet Manila’s principal ballerina and artistic director, has 27 years of dancing the lead in over 300 full-length ballets, performing in 90 cities around the globe. As directress of the Ballet Manila School, Macuja also spearheaded Project Ballet Futures, a program where poor but promising young boys and girls are given free ballet training, apparel, meals and allowances to help them reach their dream of becoming professional dancers.

Lea Salonga has reaped every imaginable award in the international music scene. Her big breakthrough came when she was selected to play Kim in the hit musical Miss Saigon in 1989. For her performance as Kim, Lea won the Olivier, the Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and the Theatre World Awards.

Today, the three are veritable icons in their own fields. They are what every young Filipino who dreams to excel in the arts would want to be; they are who make us proud to be Filipinos.

In this 60 Minutes interview, where laughter was not scarce, and ribbing punctuated some answers, where there was no diva at all, we found out what real, first-class Filipinos are truly made of.

“The Legends and the Classics” goes on stage on March 17, Saturday, 8 p.m., and on March 18, Sunday, 6 p.m., at the Tanghalang Nicanor Abelardo (Main Theater) of the Cultural Center of the Philippines. Presented by Ballet Manila and Manila Broadcasting Company, with the support of Lifestyle Network, Sofitel Philippine Plaza, and Ayala Land Premiere and with special thanks to McDonald’s Philippines, the concert also features Gerard Salonga & FILharmoniKA and Ballet Manila. Musical director is Gerard Salonga, Roxanne Lapus is stage director, while Angela B. Ureta is the scriptwriter.

STUDENTS AND CAMPUSES BULLETIN (SCB): What was the most difficult thing about bringing the three of you together in one show?

LEA SALONGA: Our schedules. People like us get booked so far in advance that it’s like moving heaven and earth just to get the three of us in one room, much less in a show where you have rehearsals, orchestra rehearsals, blocking, choreography, and putting all of these elements together. By some minor miracle we’re able to make this happen. She (Cecile) didn’t want to do it unless my brother was the musical director, so it was his schedule that we had to include. I’m his sister, and sometimes I can’t find him (laughs).

LISA MACUJA-ELIZALDE: Cecile said “If Gerard is in, then I’m in.” And then she added “And Gerard better do a good job.” (laughs)

CECILE LICAD: (Laughs) Just a little pressure.

SCB: With all your accomplishments, do the three of you still experience stage fright, especially for something like this?

LEA: I think we’re just excited to do this. It’s something that none of us have ever done. I think each of us has performed with other artists, but this is like the first time three very, very different disciplines are in one show like this. I don’t think anything is going to go wrong. Knock on wood!

CECILE: We’re just going to do what we’re good at.

LEA: We’re not going to make Cecile sing (laughs). And I’m not learning pointe any time soon!

SCB: Do you have pre-performance rituals that you observe?

CECILE: Nothing really, I just practice and practice. The older I get, the more fun it becomes (laughs).

LEA: I am always on time for a performance. So I warm up, I pace the room, I can’t sit still. I go through the song lyrics and the blocking in my head too.

LISA: I do not eat four to six hours before a performance. I do a full ballet class – stretching, jumps, full barre. I also have 10 pairs of pointe shoes in my shoe bag which I fit and try out before a performance. In my head, I assign which pair I would wear for a certain act, a certain number.

OF PRODIGIES AND THE ‘VOICE OF GOD’

SCB: Could you take us back to your very first performances here and abroad?

CECIL: I think I was wearing a dress with the same underwear.

LEA: I hope you were wearing underwear (laughs).

CECIL: Terno! That’s what I remember (laughs). When I bowed, they saw the lace (laughs). I always tell this because when I was backstage, I just realized that this was something that I was going to do all my life. I’m going to stay with this forever.

My very first performance abroad was in Philadelphia when I was 13. I was in school, so we were always performing. It was part of our studies.

LEA: I was seven for my first performance at the CCP for “The King and I”. I remember bits and pieces of the whole run. I remember Baby Barredo stepping on my foot and I couldn’t scream. I just had to grin and bear it. There’s nothing I could do! I remember kids doing cartwheels during rehearsals, I remember Rajo Laurel, who was one of the kids, knocking over a lamp because he was also in the show and he was tumbling and he breaks one of the lamps. I remember Tita Bibot (Zeneida Amador) shouting at people, constantly. Throwing stuff, tasa, lamesa. Everybody at Rep, at least one time, natapunan ng something. But the thing about Tita Bibot that I remember was that it was all for effect. When she turned her back, she’d wink at whoever was looking at her. It was to instill a certain discipline in her actors. It didn’t matter how old you were, you would get it if something was wrong. She’d have the voice of God. You do not want to hear that voice in dress rehearsals (laughs)!

I was 10 during my first international performance. I was in Honolulu and it was for a travel agents convention, and it was for the Ministry of Tourism. The First Lady was also there.

LISA: I was not a child prodigy (laughs). My first ballet teacher told me na mag Hawaiian na lang daw ako (laughs).

LEA: Aray ko, ang sakit (laughs)!

LISA: My first ballet recital was nothing much. I was in the chorus, with a tambourine, doing the Tarantella. I think I was 12. I remember getting so impatient waiting backstage for my cue to rehearse that I went down to the wings and stuck my head out. And then the voice of God, the voice of my ballet teacher, went on the microphone and said “Whose head is peeking out from the wings?” I ran back to my dressing room and she never learned who that was (laughs).

Abroad, my first performance was as a participant in the Aberdeen International Youth Festival. I was the youngest member of the delegation from the Philippines. We were in DanceStep Philippines at the time, which is the performing arm of the ballet school that I went to, the St. Theresa’s College School of Dance.

SCB: Cecile, did you have that same “voice of God’’ experience?

CECILE: My mentors were very strict. But I always remember my mother making kurot on my back whenever I screwed up.

SCB: Lea, did you ever get pinched by your mom as well?

LEA: No naman, because I think we all got scared out of our wits with Tita Bibot by herself. My mom is known for being outspoken and for standing up for her children and she has a reputation of being suplada, mataray, whatever. But when she was watching me rehearse in Rep, she never interfered. She would be very quiet, she would sit, she would be very patient and wait.

There were other moms who, when their kids got screamed, couldn’t take it. I remember in the middle of a rehearsal, while we were being screamed at for something, a mother just stood up, took her daughter by the hand, and left! She was probably hurt for the kid and you want to protect your child, but I think a lot of the moms who ended up staying figured that there’s something more to this. Ok lang na sigawan sila if it shapes them up and makes them tougher. Life is not going to be easy.

LISA: My mom, in the beginning, was just bantay. She would sit and watch class. She was my inspiration because she took up ballet before. When I went to Russia and when I started doing international guest appearances, she would be with me. Before that, she was very, very encouraging, very positive. But I remember one time, I was performing in Odessa, and my fouettés were not perfect. The first thing she said when she goes into the dressing room is “How come you didn’t do your fouettés perfectly?” I shouted back, “Mom, I’m not a machine!” (laughs) I remember that and I’m sure she will remember that because that was the first time that I answered back to her. After that, she kinda got it, that sometimes things are just not perfect on stage. No matter how hard you work, how talented you are, and how often you practice, sometimes things will not work.

SCB: Do you get criticized by your mothers?

LEA: About my wardrobe sometimes. “Parang hindi maganda ang fit ng damit mong ‘yan.” But that‘s because she‘s my mom. She‘ll blurt it out, there‘s no censor.

CECILE: I‘m very stubborn, so if my mother critiqued me, I would do the opposite of what she would say.

SCB: Would she know if a note was wrong?

CECILE: I hated it whenever she does that! I remember what my mom used to do was make me mad before I had to play. She said that‘s when I play better (laughs).

LISA: Parang si Rudolph Nureyev.

CECILE: I’d throw a chair at her. Of course I didn’t hit her, but I’d throw a chair at her when we were in New York and she’d say “Oh good, you’ll play better tonight!” (Laughs) I’m kind of a masochist, may natitira pang ganyan. Before, when I was a kid and growing up in the Philippines, you’re always so polite and you always have to try to achieve being so right all the time. But now I’ve realized that the imperfections are actually the beauty of things.

SCB: And now that you are mothers yourselves, are you the type who would want your children to follow in your footsteps:

LISA: My daughter Missy is now 13. She started ballet at five or six. She had two summer workshops and then she stopped. Quote-unquote: “Mom, ballet may be your thing, but it’s not mine.” Then she took up horseback-riding, she wanted to be an equestrian. Mas mahal di ba (laughs)? Bibili ka pa ng kabayo! Then she wanted to be a veterinarian. She got into animals. And then at 10, she said that she wanted to go back to ballet.

LEA: After a break of four years?

LISA: She watched my 25th anniversary concert, and I had baby pictures. There she decided that she wanted to go for it. There’s no turning back now. She’s been at it regularly for the past two and a half years.

SCB: Lea, does your daughter have the makings of a singer like her mom?

LEA: Naku, I don’t know! She enjoys it when she’s on stage. She likes being the center of attention. But it’s too hard to tell. She’s also into ballet. She seems to enjoy dressing up in costume. When she does something really well, we encourage it. We practice it even at home. But she’s also swimming. So she’s satisfying both interests. She’s only five, so it’s still a long way pa. Right now, even my mom says that whatever Nicole says, she’s going to forget about it tomorrow, so just steer her in that direction.

SCB: Cecile, your son Ottavio is into music...

CECILE: I know, but he doesn’t practice piano anymore. He’s my critic. He’s got an amazing imagination. He has a cello too (laughs). He was very natural on the piano but he doesn’t touch the piano anymore. He’s smart with a lot of things. He wants to take up Law.

SCB: Have you watched each other perform?

LISA: Oh yeah, many times. I really loved Lea in “They’re Playing Our Song” and “My Fair Lady”. I brought my kids to her concert at the PICC. Wow! She was singing from beginning to end for two hours, non-stop. Bow (laughs)! Si Cecile, I watched her in CCP.

LEA: I would see Lisa on TV when she danced with Ballet Manila at Concert at the Park. I finally got to see Cecile live with Gerard and Fil harmoniKA. You have to really watch it live. There are certain things and performances that cannot be captured by a camera. The being there. When you see sweat flying off of a dancer.

LISA: The presence, the energy!

CECILE: I’ve seen Lea on TV. I’ve heard a lot of her records. I was in tears when I heard her voice. I’ve seen “Miss Saigon” in New York. Of course, who wouldn’t see that.

SCB: Cecile, won’t you get distracted if someone is dancing on stage while you are playing?

CECILE: No. I don’t know. Maybe (laughs). I have not done this before. This is the first time!

THE BEST IN WHAT THEY DO

SCB: You guys started performing internationally at such a young age. Was there ever a point when you just wanted to go back home?

LEA: I don’t know, I just liked it a lot (laughs). It was only when I was 18 and I was in London, but it wasn’t so much homesickness. My mom was with me so home was always with me, in a way. But I think that was the time when we were both kind of helpless. My voice was starting to go and I’ve never lost my voice before. We were ill-equipped for that experience. But through a lot of help from a lot of people, we were able to figure out what I needed to do — vocal rest, vocal therapy, singing lessons. But it never entered my mind to quit no matter how hard things got.

CECILE: That’s the fire inside.

LEA: It’s not about quitting but about finding ways to get back onstage.

CECILE: Yeah. There’s something inside you that drives you to do what you do. That’s why we’re still here (laughs).

SCB: Lisa, was your experience in Russia the same as Lea’s?

LISA: I was homesick. My first year in Russia was the most difficult year of my life. I was culture shocked. This was Communism. I was alone. I didn’t have my mom with me. I didn’t know the language. It was very, very cold. I didn’t know the technique. They were teaching me things that I never encountered before. And it was a methodology that all my other classmates were learning at seven or eight years old. I couldn’t understand my teacher because she was speaking in rapid Russian.

I thought that I had gotten good enough and that my love for dancing was enough to get me through. But when I got there, every other girl was so talented and so well-trained and spoke Russian and knew how to do their food shopping in Russian. I didn’t know anything, and it was during Communism, so nothing was available. Lines were everywhere for the basic supplies.

It was really the most difficult year of my life until I could finally relate the words to actions. That’s when I started to improve and things started to get better.

SCB: You didn’t see yourself staying there to be a professional dancer?

LISA: I thought that I needed to see it through because the commitment was for two years to study in that school, and the commitment with my parents was just two years to concentrate on ballet. If nothing happened then I’d go back to university and become an accountant.

LEA: Aray!

CECILE: (Laughs)

LISA: I didn’t want to do it so I stuck to it, through the injuries, the cold, everything. After the first year, things got easier as I was “discovered’’ and they really started to develop me. And since I was Filipina, and really tiny and really fast, I was a really high jumper and fast turner. The press started to notice and everything just really jumped after the first year. After the whole four years, I didn’t want to go, I didn’t want to leave, it was like my second home already.

SCB: Cecile, how did the decision to live abroad come about for you?

CECILE: I never make decisions, it just happens (laughs). I can share a story about me and ballet. I’ve never done anything with ballet, but there was one concert once that I had to do in Washington, and I was there backstage where we had to warm up. It was a ballet room and it was very dark and I was in one corner practicing. Then somebody comes in and I go “Oh my God, that’s (Mikhail) Baryshnikov!”

LISA AND LEA: Oh my God!

CECILE: I wish I had a video. He was in the corner, warming up because he was also part of the show. He was dancing for Jerome Robbins and I was playing so beautifully so that you know… (laughs). I was very inspired of course.

LEA: Guwapo kasi eh!

SCB: Having careers abroad, did it change the way you look at the arts here in the country?

LEA: Your mind has expanded. I guess when you’re exposed to art and other artists abroad, even just being an audience member, or me for example going to MET just to watch a ballet, or watching an instrumentalist perform, the exposure to so many to themselves. But when they start playing an instrument, or when they start to sing, it’s like, ok, God has just descended in the person of this artist. You then respect the art regardless of…

CECILE: You actually forget yourself.

SCB: Is it more difficult to break into the industry before than now because of YouTube and talent reality shows, plus there’s more competition?

LEA: Actually it’s good to have more competition because that kind of fuels everyone to get better. I hope. It’s like survival of the species, survival of the fittest. It’s that simple. It’s just the way nature works when there’s competition, people tend to fight.

CECILE: It drives you to get the best out of what you can do.

LISA: I think the pace is much faster. But the demands of the industry, it’s pretty much the same.

LEA: At the end of the day, you’re gonna have to deliver. You have to have the goods kasi if you don’t, wala rin. I guess it just cast the net a little wider, because then you have other platforms that you didn’t have before to showcase an audition. Some people are able to audition now by YouTube. It makes your life easier with technology but at the end of the day, you have to get hired based on merit.

SCB: Without putting down the Philippine art scene, would you be the Cecile Licad that you are now if you had not gone abroad?

CECILE: Could be. Maybe not. I don’t know.

LEA: I don’t think so (laughs). I’ll give my opinion.

CECILE: But there are a lot of special qualities about being a Filipino as well.

SCB: What about you, Lisa?

LISA: Definitely. I wouldn’t be the dancer that I am today if I didn’t go abroad. It’s not just the training, the schooling, the tradition, the teachers, not just the accessibility of the performances that you can watch and learn from, but the accessibility of different teachers who can teach and mentor you in different techniques that you can try out for yourself. Here, sometimes people can be loyal to a fault to the point that the teachers will get angry with you if you start to experiment.

Hindi puwede ‘yung bahala na, papasa na ‘yan. Hindi puwede ‘yung kung magkakamali ka, matatawa ka na lang. You laugh at yourself. Hindi puwede ‘yun. It’s a different culture that molds you into a different artist. You get exposed to different audiences that give different reactions to your performance.

CECILE: Yes, and it makes you a fighter. Who says so (laughs)!