IT RUNS IN THE FAMILY Shirley Cruz Halili in Malacañang after Ani ng Dangal awards with daughter Anna Kathrina Halili-Cruz and associate director Grace Perez

There is a unique mother-and-daughter team in the Halili-Cruz School of Ballet and Conservatory (HCSB) now observing its 38th year. The director is Dr. Shirley Halili-Cruz while her daughter, Anna Halili-Cruz Bueno, is associate director with Grace Perez.

The school director describes her own evolution as mother, dancer, and teacher while recalling the school’s modest beginnings. “I think I have gone full circle,” she says.

“I’ve raised wonderful children, trained students to become future dancers and teachers, crossed generations to conceptualize programs and mounted projects that bridged the culture of dance. I’ve shared resources to build good lives for others and, in the process, showcase the rich dance heritage of the country.”

For her daughter, it was easy to absorb the job with her mother at the helm. “It was easy absorbing my job as associate director because I’ve been with her since I was seven years old,” she says.

Anna’s job is to make sure the school is managed properly. “We are very much hands on in everything related to the school—teachers, classes, rehearsals, schedules, performances, costumes, music, casting, students and parents relationship,  and many other related concerns,” she says. “We even look after building maintenance. Our general task is how to keep the school on its toes.”

There is one thing good about her mother as director. “As artistic director, my mother gives us freedom in the decisions we make regarding our students,” she says. “With her being my teacher since the beginning, I know by heart how she gets the best from her students.”

A TIMELESS STORY Swan Lake as mounted by the Halili-Cruz School of Ballet

Management is smooth even in the implementation of the school’s dance syllabus. “It is easy to implement the syllabus approved by the school because our faculty are homegrown and they know our syllabus by heart,” says Anna.

Fulfillment for her is to see that the school is thriving and that the students are enjoying themselves while getting stronger and dancing well. “When the parents are happy and content and we produce excellent productions, that is a source of fulfillment,” says Anna. “The big bonus is seeing the whole school as one big happy family.”

Running both the school of ballet and the conservatory involves careful planning with the right dance syllabus. While HCSB is oriented on classical ballet, she also established the Halili-Cruz Conservatory (HCC) to cater to other dance genres including contemporary dance, hip-hop, tap, modern dance, jazz, musical theatre, and lyrical dance.

Her mother Shirley pointed out their school of ballet continues its original objective of providing a systematic and holistic classical ballet education anchored on the 12-level ballet syllabi she authored.

When Shirley founded her school of ballet in 1985, she was already into teaching dance of various genres. She taught ballet, jazz, and Polynesian dance at Siena College, Sta. Catalina, and St Paul College, among others.

She was already into teaching while undergoing training as a dancer. Early dance training included being the principal dancer and soloist of the Dance Concert Company under director-choreographer Eric V. Cruz.

Her dance background also allowed her to be part of theater productions of the late Fr. James. B. Reuter. She didn’t stop after Manila schooling. She completed professional teaching courses in New York. It wasn’t easy starting a dance school.

There are just too many concerns quite far away from teaching dance, like financing and designing the school structure and brainstorming designs for five studios with facilities like dressing rooms, offices, comfort rooms, canteen, quadrangle, parking lot, and many others.

“I chose teachers and school staff who were graduates of our ballet school and who shared my vision,” says Shirley. Her efforts paid off handsomely.
In time, the school became part of international dance affiliations, which enabled her to aim for a high standard of dance education. Soon the dance school was representing the country at world festivals and later winning international competitions.

“It has always been clear to me that the school is a way to realize my passion for dance and my commitment to provide a legacy of excellent dance education in the country,” says Shirley.

From the very beginning, she considered challenges as sources of new ideas on how to raise the level of dance education. “I am essentially a positive person in terms of outlook,” Shirley explains. “I look at problems as a good way to find new approaches to teaching dance. I also found a strong support from my family, mentors, and friends. which made a lot of difference.”

The most stressful in the 38 years of existence of the school was of course how it coped with the pandemic. “We confronted the problems head-on and did what was possible under the not- so ideal circumstances,” intimates Shirley. “We immediately implemented online teaching. We didn’t have to close the school. The last four years tested our capability to adjust and just be resilient.  We navigated through the virtual platforms with great success as we sustained at least 500 students within the said period and maintained our school staff and teachers.”

Thus far, HCBS has mounted five online recitals and four face-to-face concerts at the school’s main studio with 500 students, among them some foreign dance enrollees.

On July 30, the Halili-Cruz School of Ballet and the Halili-Cruz Conservatory will present Summer Dance Divertissement 2023 at 2 p.m. and the “Diversifiera 2023” at 7 p.m. at the Newport Performing Arts Theater. The 7 p.m. show will have the Philippine Madrigal Singers and the Manila Philharmonic Orchestra as special guests.