Lisa Macuja-Elizalde will hold a thanksgiving ballet concert on Oct. 2 at the Aliw Theater Hall to mark her 45th birthday and her silver anniversary as a dancer.

Earlier, laptop manufacturer Sony hosted a gala cocktail for her during the launch of its new Vaio collection in Peninsula Manila Hotel.

Sony Philippines lauded Macuja?s ?unmatched achievement of a valued and loyal customer who has touched audiences throughout the Philippines and in more than 85 cities in five continents around the world,? and described her as ?a cultural icon, a champion for Philippine art, and a visionary.?

Macuja started taking ballet when she was 9 at St. Theresa?s College. After high school, she was accepted into the Vaganova Choreographic Institute (now the Academy of Russian Ballet) in St. Petersburg as a scholar of the USSR Ministry of Culture. She graduated at the top of her class in 1984 and became the first non-Russian to be invited to join the Kirov Ballet.

With Kirov, Lisa performed as principal dancer in ballets such as ?The Nutcracker,? ?Giselle,? and ?Don Quixote? (which she performed with a ruptured thigh muscle and received a 20-minute curtain call).

Roots

She returned to Manila in 1986 and became the first artist-in-residence of the Cultural Center of the Philippines while dancing with Ballet Philippines.

In 1988, she became a ballerina of Philippine Ballet Theater. In 1996, she founded her own dance company and school, Ballet Manila.

As a dancer, Macuja has performed nearly 300 different roles. For BM, she juggles the roles of principal artist, artistic director, teacher and company administrator. From an original complement of 12 dancers, BM now has over 70 dancers.

Macuja has been a moving force in bringing ballet to the masses. BM?s regular-season productions are staged in Star Theater and Aliw Theater, two venues that are conjoined to the Star City theme park. Patrons of the park get to watch her shows as part of their entrance fee.

BM has performed outreach performance tours in over 45 cities and towns.

?Our motto is ?Have floor, will dance,?? Macuja says. ?We?ve even danced on wooden softdrink crates while on tour!?

Tech-savvy artist

?I have been using Vaio laptops since 2001, even before it was available in Manila, and I?ve had three so far. I am like a techie-wannabe because I am interested in learning but do not have the time,? she says.

Nonetheless, she has incorporated her laptop (and her digicam and videocam) into almost every aspect of her life.

Aside from using it in her office to manage BM, she relies on her laptop to serve the needs of her own and her dancers? craft. She does basic music editing when needed and uses it to playback video of rehearsals and performances for critiquing. In out-of-town venues, her laptop occasionally fills in for audio-video equipment.

For personal use, Macuja uses it to access the web to maintain her social networking accounts and website (www.lisamacuja.com). She has blogged about why ?Don Quixote? is special to her, and plans to add ?more videos, interactive features, and links.? She considers her laptop as the ?study partner? that helped her complete a Management Degree (with honors) from University of Phoenix online.

She?s even nurtured the same love for technology with Missy and Mac, her children with industrialist and painter husband Fred Elizalde. Both children have laptops of their own and Macuja encourages their self-expression through their blogs (where they advocate issues such as the environment and endangered species).

More than dance

Macuja?s dance career has resulted in numerous accolades, such as a silver medal from the Asia-Pacific Ballet Competition, Tokyo; Ten Outstanding Young Persons of the World, USA; and the Order of International Friendship by former Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Her work in dance has always incorporated civic service. BM provides scholarships for deserving students. She also recently founded Project Ballet Futures with the Philippine Christian Foundation to provide ballet training, milk, vitamins and stipends to indigent scholars.

She has served as commissioner of the National Commission on the Role of Filipino Women and is vice chair of the Philippine Unesco National Commission. She also serves as founding treasurer of the Artists Welfare Project.

Three-part concert

The gala cocktail kicks off Macuja?s series of performances for the 14th season of BM, featuring highlights from her career.

?Lisa@25? will be a multimedia live dance concert in three parts: a classical ballet medley; a pop medley; ending in ?Prinsipe ng Mga Ibon,? the first story from ?Tatlong Kuwento ni Lola Basyang.?

The Oct. 2 performance will be followed by an after-show party to celebrate Macuja?s 45th birthday.

?I always like dancing on my birthday. It makes the day extra special and gives me a chance to celebrate onstage,? she says.

She will give her farewell performance as Kitri in ?Don Quixote.?

?I suppose being able to dance Kitri, with all those prerequisite high jumps and speedy turns, during a silver anniversary is a feat in itself,? she says. ?Knowing that it is my last shot at my dream role, a signature role that I have been fortunate enough to dance many, many times after that winter morning in St. Petersburg, will make these final three performances like no other.?

?Lisa@25? runs Oct. 2-4. ?Don Quixote? runs Oct 9-11. Call 4000292 or 5255967.