Highly regarded as a modern-day icon in the Philippine arts and culture community, Lisa Macuja-Elizalde was the country’s first and only locally- based prima ballerina for three decades, until her retirement in 2017.

Today, she continues to inspire and support young dancers as artistic director of Ballet Manila and director of the Lisa Macuja School of Ballet. She has been invited to sit as a jury member in a number of regional ballet competitions, and has given several master classes throughout Asia, as well as in Russia and Australia.

As a competition coach, Lisa has mentored prizewinning ballerinas who now enjoy successful careers as principal artists of major companies, including The Washington Ballet’s Katherine Barkman (silver medalist, 2018 USA IBC and 2018 Varna IBC; Grand Prix, 2015 Asian Grand Prix) and Joffrey Ballet’s Christine Rocas (silver medalist and Arpino awardee, 2005 New York IBC).

Moreover, she reaches out to encourage and motivate artists from diverse disciplines through her various capacities as advocate for arts education and audience development, community leader, patron, philanthropist, and motivational speaker.

Lisa graduated with honors from the Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet in 1984 under the class of Tatiana A. Udalenkova. As a soloist of the Kirov (now Mariinsky) Ballet for two seasons, her most memorable debuts include the title role in Giselle and as Kitri in Don Quixote (for which she was coached by prima ballerina Gabriela Komleva).

She returned to Manila in 1986, determined to champion her country in the ballet capitals of the world as a Philippine-based principal ballerina and a highly sought-after international guest artist.

In 1995, she founded her own company, Ballet Manila, which continues to flourish as one of the most formidable classical ballet companies in Asia under her leadership, with dancers trained exclusively in the Vaganova Method.

As an artist and visionary, Lisa Macuja-Elizalde has received numerous awards for excellence, both locally and internationally, including the Ten Outstanding Young Filipinos (1995), Ten Outstanding Young Persons of the World (TOYP), and the Order of International Friendship from the Russian Federation (2001).