MANILA -- The art of ballet deserves to be widely shared and celebrated.

These feelings deeply resonated with ballerina Lisa Macuja, the artistic director and chief executive officer of Ballet Manila, as she forged a partnership with Arete, a performance hub located at the Ateneo de Manila University campus in Quezon City.

In a recent press conference, Macuja stressed that Ballet Manila has maintained its mission and vision of ensuring that ballet is within the reach of the public, while also engaging a greater number of individuals in this artistic sphere.

To actualize this mission, she conceived the idea of bringing dance to the northern part of Metro Manila.

“It is an idea that I wanted to do from when I first learned that Ateneo would be constructing a theater in their campus,” she said.

“We are hoping to build a new audience that will go to the ballet and we are hopefully able to expand this, not just to make it a performance season of Ballet Manila here in Arete but to also make it a more immersive experience with ballet workshops, ballet classes, and lecture demonstrations,” she added.

Dr. Ricardo Abad, the artistic director of Arete, shares this objective with Macuja, saying the partnership with Ballet Manila will serve as a vehicle for igniting a deeper appreciation for the performing arts among a wider Filipino audience.

“I’ve been dreaming of a partnership like this for Arete and I was thrilled to know that Lisa had a similar vision for Ballet Manila. This partnership will strengthen our creative and social missions as we strive to reach out to diverse publics and communities. Join us in this effort,” he said.

With this new collaboration, those from Quezon City and nearby areas will have an alternative venue to watch Ballet Manila shows, apart from its home in Aliw Theater in Pasay City.

“Again, it’s a way to reach out to create more audiences for our art form. If the people that live around Ateneo in this part of town find it hard to go to the CCP or Aliw Theater to watch a ballet performance there, it’s the same with us. It’s also very far from us to come here to dance. I just want to make it convenient for the audience and for the performers as well,” she said.

“Also, I foresee this relationship to develop as such where we will be able to educate a lot more people how to be a little bit more discerning as audience members and really popularize the art form.”

To kick-off the partnership, Ballet Manila will be re-staging Martin Lawrance’s modern and Filipino iteration of “Romeo & Juliet,” which was part of its recently concluded 25th performance season “Of Hope and Homecoming.”

Show dates are on September 16 at 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. and on September 17 at 5 p.m. at the Hyundai Hall, Arete. Tickets to the shows are available through Ticketworld.

In the future, Macuja hinted at plans of bringing more shows to Arete that will surely delight ballet enthusiasts in Quezon City and nearby areas.

“I really want to bring ‘Ibong Adarna’ here. I think it’s very appropriate because every first year student studies ‘Ibong Adarna.’ I think it’s very appropriate to bring it here. But really, I want to have a season. I want to be able to announce every year that, ‘Okay, this is happening in Aliw Theater. This is happening in Arete,’” Macuja said.