ABOUT
The Lucila Project is the husband and wife team of dance artists Ida Beltran-Lucila and Jojo Lucila, and their joint and individual projects. They have both worked as performers, teachers, choreographers, restagers, dance directors, and administrators. Their advocacy is to share their love for and expertise in dance, and to promote Philippine art, culture and talent.
Ida Beltran-Lucila
Ida started her dance training in Manila with Vella Damian and rose to soloist status with the Dance Concert Company, under the artistic direction of Eric V. Cruz. She then moved on to Ballet Philippines, the resident dance company of the Cultural Center of the Philippines. As principal dancer, she has danced the lead roles like: Odette/Odile in Swan Lake, Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker, Gamzatti in La Bayadere, Columbine in Harlequinade, the Bluebird Pas de Deux in Sleeping Beauty, Hermia in Midsummer Night's Dream, among others. She has also performed in Russia, Croatia, Indonesia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Korea, Taiwan, Japan, Germany and in China, with the Beijing Dance Company.
After a highly successful career, Ida moved on to teaching and restaging ballets like the Kingdom of the Shades from La Bayadere, Alice Reyes' Carmina Burana, full-length ballets like Don Quixote, Madame Butterfly, The Nutcracker and Cinderella.
Together with Jojo Lucila, they founded the Chameleon Dance Company and its sister company Teatro Silencio (a dance company of hearing impaired dancers), in Manila. She also was the Associate Artistic Director of Philippine Ballet Theater and later on, of Ballet Philippines, a founding member and President of the Association of Ballet Academies of the Philippines, Vice-Chair of the Dance Committee of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts, and prior to her move to Canada, was the Executive Director of Ballet Philippines.
Ida graduated cum laude from the University of the Philippines with a degree in Theater Arts and later on took Master's Studies in Special Education, and worked on a dance therapy program for special children. She also completed the Managing the Arts Program at the Asian Institute of Management.
In Canada, she was Artistic Director of the Edmonton Festival Ballet and Chameleon Dance Edmonton (the latter together with Jojo Lucila). She has shared her expertise as a dance teacher with several ballet studios and was guest ballet mistress for the Ukrainian Shumka Dancers for several years.
Ida is the Program Director of the Edmonton Filipino Fiesta and the Founder and Executive Director of the Philippine Arts Council Alberta. In July 2018, she was the Artistic Director of the premiere of Emma the Musical and a Board Member for the Edmonton Arts Council (2019-2022). Ida was also the director and writer of the documentary "Paglalayag: the Philippines to Canada Journey", the stories of migration of Filipinos in Alberta, released in 2021.
Ida was a 2017 Hiyas awardee from the Karilagan Dance Society and a recipient of the 2017 Edmonton Artist Trust Fund of the Edmonton Arts Council and the Edmonton Community Foundation, being the first and so far the only Filipino awardee. In September 2018, along with husband Jojo Lucila, they were awarded the Golden Balangay Gluckstein Award for Excellence in Art and Culture. Ida is also a recipient of a Citation Award for Culture and the Arts by the City of Edmonton, presented in November 2019. In 2021, she was named as Top 25 Canadian Immigrant Awardee.
Ida continues to teach dance, lead artistic projects, and is a columnist on art and culture with the Alberta Filipino Journal.
Jojo Lucila
Jojo started his dance training in Manila with the University of the East Dance Troupe under Gener Caringal, and subsequently joined Ballet Philippines, the resident dance company of the Cultural Center of the Philippines. With Ballet Philippines, he trained under distinguished artists like Norman Walker, William Morgan, Alice Reyes, Luminita Dumitrescu, Mikhail Kukharev, Vakhtang Chabukiani, Armin Wild, Alfred Rodriguez, Rosemary Helliwell, Kenneth Gillespie, Gray Veredon, Effie Nanas, Cora Inigo, Ester Rimpos, Noordin Jumalon, among others.
He began his choreographic venture in 1983 and was featured in Ballet Philippines' Five Young Choreographers and in the launching of Ballet Philippines II. He founded the Chameleon Dance Company together with Ida Beltran-Lucila in 1989. Aside from his own company and Ballet Philippines, he has also choreographed for Philippine Ballet Theater, Ballet Manila, Hong Kong Ballet and various ballet schools. He has the distinction of directing and choreographing the Philippine Independence Day Celebrations under the auspices of the Department of Tourism from 1997-2005, the Millenium celebrations, and various musicals.
Jojo also became the Dance Director of the University of the East Dance Troupe, Artistic Director of Teatro Silencio Pilipinas (a company of hearing impaired dancers), Theater Director of the Armed Forces of the Philippines' Teatro Aguinaldo, and an officer of the Dance Committee of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts.
In Canada, he was Artistic Director of Chameleon Dance Edmonton, together with Ida Beltran-Lucila. Jojo has also taught and choreographed for various dance groups and schools like the Edmonton Festival Ballet, Victoria Schools for the Arts, Dance Unlimited, Edmonton Contemporary Dance Company, Citie Ballet, and the Ukrainian Shumka Dancers. His choreographies have won awards in different competitions and danced by the Dance Theatre of Tennessee. He was also the Choreographer for Emma the Musical, which premiered in July 2018.
Jojo was a recipient of the Cultural Diversity in the Arts awarded by the City of Edmonton in 2012 and the Karilagan Dance Society's Hiyas Award in 2017. Most recently, he received the Golden Balangay Gluckstein Award for Excellence in Art and Culture, along with wife Ida Beltran-Lucila.