MANILA, Philippines?Ballerina and radio show host Lisa Macuja-Elizalde describes the Pasay City home she shares with husband Fred and kids Missy and Manuel: ?It has a cozy kind of clutter.?

It seems ?creative clutter? is the main design principle, yes. to borrow the title of the Elizaldes? coffee-table book, the house can also be described as ?A Marriage of the Arts.?

To say it boasts a floor-to-ceiling, wall-to-wall showcase of paintings is no exaggeration. Alongside photographs from Macuja?s ballet career are oil paintings done by Elizalde?most of them inspired by his wife, his muse.

His personal favorite is ?Firebird.? It?s also the title of a ballet they did in 2000,? she recounts. Her favorite is another version, a nude ?Firebird,? this one facing the viewer. ?It captured my eyes perfectly,? she notes.

Other paintings were inspired by her performances, like ?Carmen? and ?Red Cross Ball.?

?He?s bought back all of his paintings that were sold in his last exhibit in 1999,? Macuja says. ?He can?t really bear to part with them.?

In the main house, the only paintings not by Elizalde are by Fernando Amorsolo and Oscar Navarro. One is by an unknown French painter.

Displayed with the prized art works are precious drawings by Missy, 10, and Manuel, 8.

Elizalde notes that he is partial to Asian art?thus the 14th-century samurai armor from Japan and the extensive collection of Buddha figures from all over the region.

Antique sculptures of Shiva, Vishnu and the stucco Buddhas date back to the 4th, 8th and 10th centuries.

?Fred acquired these antiques before they were protected by the Unesco,? Macuja asserts in her usual playful tone. ?He started collecting in the ?60s and ?70s.?

Standing on a two-hectare property, the house itself is an antique. ?This was originally the ancestral home of Fred?s mom, of the Cadwallader family,? she relates. ?It was burned down during World War II.?

There is talk that ghosts of Japanese soldiers hover in the guest?s quarters, which they dubbed Buddha House, and which was built in 2001.

Visiting ballet teachers from Russia usually stay in the Buddha House, but it also serves as storage space for Elizalde?s paintings and books.

Near the guest house is the pool. ?We expanded it a bit when our kids were born,? Macuja recalls. ?Fred was a competitive swimmer. He was in the 1960 Rome Olympics.?

The porch was enclosed in glass only in 1999, and turned into an air-conditioned painting area for Elizalde. ?He likes sitting in there and watching me rehearse,? she says.

Macuja spends at least four hours a day, six days a week at the Ballet Manila dance studio, a stone?s throw away from the main house.

These days, she divides her time between her dzRH radio show ?Art 2 Art? and the new Ballet Manila production ?Tatlong Kuwento ni Lola Basyang.? (The Elizalde clan owns the Manila Broadcasting Company, which runs dzRH.)

??Lola Basyang? is our most extravagant and ambitious project yet,? Macuja says. It will run on the first two weekends of December, with possible extension, at the Aliw Theater.

Macuja is proud of her one-year-old radio program which was given a special citation by the Catholic Mass Media Awards recently. ?We?re the youngest show to be honored,? she says.

The Elizaldes, who got married in 1997, have also filled their home with souvenirs from their trips?like photographs in Disneyland and Boracay, miniatures of the Colosseum, Eiffel Tower and Empire State Building. The mementos each holds a special meaning for the couple.

?When we visited New York,? Macuja says, ?I was pregnant with Missy; Paris, when Missy was a year old. Rome, we had both kids already.?