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Malu Rivera-Peoples Malu took her first ballet class at the late age of 10 under the tutelage of Felicitas Radaic, Luis Layag and Steve Villaruz. At age 16, she began a professional career as principal dancer of Dance Theater Philippines under the direction of Felicitas Radaic, training further with guest artists Ian Stripling and Robin Haig. She later moved on to a bigger company becoming a soloist of the Cultural Center of the Philippines Dance Company, today known as Ballet Philippines under the artistic direction of Alice Reyes. Since then, she has trained with national and international figures such as Gener Caringal, Kenneth Gillespie, Armin Wilde, Norman Walker, Luminita Dumitrescu, William Morgan, Alfred Rodriguez, Gray Veredon, and Mikael Kukarev. She performed with internationally acclaimed guest dancers such as Alicia Alonso, Margot Fonteyn, Patrick Bissell, Fernando Bujones, Leslie Brown, Joyce Cuoco, Martin Van Hamel, Natasha Makarova, Eleanor D’Antuono and Rudolph Nureyev. Dancing has taken her all over the world, including Great Britain, Wales, former USSR, Germany, France, Greece, Indonesia, United States, Jakarta, Thailand, Taipei, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Malaysia. Among the popular classics, she performed solo roles in the full-length productions of Swan Lake, Giselle, Don Quixote, Nutcracker, Cinderella, Les Sylphides, and Romeo & Juliet. Malu was a noted performer for her strong projection and characterization in neo-classic and modern choreography, such as; La Gitana, in Norman Walker’s Songs, Drones, and Refrains of Death; Helen of Troy in Odyseus; Kooni in Rama Hari, and Tadtarin in Amada, choreographed by Alice Reyes; and Maria in Tanan, choreographed by Felicitas Radaic. She has performed several title roles such as "Gardenia" choreographed by Edna Vida, and "Leonore", choreographed by Robin Haig. Her teaching career began at age 14 under the supervision of her teacher Felicitas Radaic. She became a member of the Royal Academy of Dance (RAD, London) at age 16, qualifying her to prepare children for the annual RAD Children’s Examinations; the same examinations she passed with flying colors as a student. At 19, while she was dancing for Ballet Philippines, she opened her own school, the Silid-Sining Workshop for the Performing Arts in Manila, which continues to operate to this date. In 1983, Malu migrated to the United States and by the summer of 1991, she co-founded the Westlake School for the Performing Arts (WSPA) in Daly City. Under the leadership of Rivera-Peoples, WSPA has gained an excellent reputation in the community and for being an "Outstanding School” that continues to receive awards for their ensemble and solo entries in competitions such as the Youth America Grand Prix, the International Dance Challenge, Showstoppers, and Prelude, in both junior and senior divisions. Rivera-Peoples is recognized as an excellent choreographer, receiving several “Outstanding Choreography Awards” for modern, ballet, lyrical jazz, and musicals. She was twice awarded the “Outstanding Choreographer” by the Youth America Grand Prix in Long Beach in 2004 and 2006. She directs WSPA’s full-length ballet The Nutcracker every year at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco. She has lead the school to showcase for international audiences in the Philippines, Maui, and Scotland, as well as to compete in national finals in New York, Las Vegas, and Anaheim. A recipient of the 2001 Pamana Arts Legacy Award from the Filipino-American Arts Exposition, she moved on to direct the organization’s 2004 Pamana Awards Night at the Herbst Theater in San Francisco. She was honored to sit in the Panel of Remarkable Women for the Filipina Women's Network in 2004 and was recently selected as one of the “Top 100 Most Influential Filipina Women in the US” in Washington D.C. |
