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Gisela de Estrada

Gisela was born in a loving and caring family. Her father was Luis Alfredo Siliezar García, who was born on May 20th 1923 in San Salvador. Her mother was born on October 3rd 1947 in Santa Ana. Gisela’s father is 24 years older than her mother. Gisela is not an only child, she has have the fortune to have four older sisters to companion her through life. The oldest one is Lorena de Vaquerano, then comes Evelyn de Túrcios followed by Rosa María. One of the youngest, Claudia de Gonzalez and at last, Gisela Veronica. She was born on July 15th 1972 in San Salvador. As a child, she studied in many places. She started kinder garden at “Escuela Nuestra Señora de Lourdes”. Her parents decided to move Gisela from that school when she was in sixth grade; they transferred her to “La Divina Providencia” to complete her seventh and eighth grades. Again, her parents changed her to another school, “La Asuncion”, where she underwent her ninth grade education and her first year of high school. But that was not the last change during her school years. She finished high school in “Liceo Bautista”. Gisela confessed that she had never been an outstanding student. Her interests were sports, especially volleyball. She even played with the school team and won the Student’s Championship with her team mates. But that does not mean her grades were bad either. Something that Gisela remembers about her high school years is that she won the crown for Miss Sympathy. What is unbelievable for her is that her contender was a really gorgeous and beautiful girl. She still finds hard to believe that sympathy defeated beauty.

When asked about her beginnings as a dancer Gisela remembers the time when she was eight years old, she saw something that completely caught her attention: Nadia Comaneci; a Rumanian, had gotten a perfect score in Gymnastics. She had gotten a ten from every judge in the Olympic Games in 1979. Gisela also saw Nadia’s film and that made her feel different. Gisela states that Nadia Comaneci was her influence to start doing gymnastics at that age and time. However, on those years, Gisela saw another thing that impacted and changed her life. While studying at “Nuestra Señora de Lourdes”, specifically in third grade, Gisela saw a ninth grader dancing ballet. Gisela saw the elegant movements that the dancer showed. That was the first encounter that she had with ballet. Later on, that same ninth grader was going to dance another piece. She needed more people and started to visit each grade to choose the girls. When she got to Gisela’s classroom, much to her surprise, she was one of the girls the ninth grader chose to dance in the act. She even remembers which piece it was: “Bosque de Viena”. From that day on, ballet and Gisela would never be apart.

Ever since then Gisela, “the dancer”, started also to become Gisela “the teacher and choreographer”, she put together her first dance when she was in fifth grade: “Hungarian Dance #5” and from this point she never stopped choreographing. But Gisela had to fight a battle with her mother in order to reach her dream. She begged her mother to let her study ballet. Her mother’s answer was always a firm no. One day Gisela saw an ad in the newspaper for “Morena-Celarie Dance School”. Gisela brought the ad to her mom and with this; she finally gave Gisela the approval to study ballet. It was while being at this dance school that Gisela suffered a great deception. The preparation for a dance was being executed and Gisela was sure that she would be chosen for that play. Unfortunately, she was left aside. That hurt her but it gave her strength to continue in the purpose of her dream. One of the professors that helped Gisela to have a better technique in ballet was Eduardo Rogel. Gisela remembers that he was strict –very strict-, but this made her learn a lot more.

While Gisela was studying ballet, the civil war in El Salvador had already begun. One of the scariest experiences she lived was a gun shooting in a neighborhood called “Santa Clara”. Thank God that nothing happed to her. She considers herself to be very lucky since she did not lose any member of her family or friends during these hard days. Gisela studied ballet for fourteen years. But more that been a ballet dancer, she wanted to become a ballet teacher. While she was in the transition, she got married with Eduardo Enrique Estrada and she had to leave ballet to take care of her own family. Gisela was taking care of her first daughter –also called Gisela- who has born on November 16th 1993, when her husband came up with an idea of having a family business. Gisela agreed, she wanted something related to ballet, but her husband wanted something related to cooking and food. Luckily, Gisela’s mother and father –in-law supported her and convinced her husband to let her have a business that had to do with ballet. On February 12th, 1996 her dream came true. “Macholah Ballet School” was founded. The name of the ballet school comes from Hebrew, which means “Dance Academy”. Gisela’s original concept or idea for Macholah was not only focused on teaching ballet but also arts, acting classes, etc. She wanted something like the American Ballet Academy. With this in mind, she has put together plays that involve singing, dancing and acting; more likely a Broadway presentation. Macholah’s first month had had three little girls and two grown up ones divided in two different classes. At the end of that same year, she had twenty three students. As the time has passed, she has had more than a hundred of students mixed between boys and girls. Since 1996 Gisela and her plays have received several compliments from the public in general and from important people that have seen the school’s performances like the Israel’s Ambassador. Since Gisela became a teacher, she has attended several meetings in different countries. She went to Spain in 1997 and shared with people from different countries, things related to folk music. In 2005, she went to San Diego, California for another learn and practice meeting.

Almost at Macholah’s 15th anniversary Gisela still has a very strong sense of what she wants for the future, like having better infrastructure, some sponsoring and maybe a little more publicity for her plays. She confesses that her biggest dream is to be able to choreography a Broadway show, and even as mad as it sounds and despite her laughter, we could tell for the look on her eyes that she really meant it. Gisela is happy with her family: her daughter Gisela and her sons Samuel and Daniel, her husband, Eduardo and with her school Macholah. She has had a great impact in all the students she has taught. In a short interview we could conduct among them, they all said Gisela was more than a teacher or a director, she is consider as a friend and even a mother for many of them; they even say Macholah is more like a big family than a dancing school. Gisela was described as strict yet approachable, capable of bringing out the best dancer her students can be. Gisela Veronica is not only the owner of a successful ballet school, or a mother, wife, friend and even stepmother for some people; she is also a dreamer who will not rest until reality beats the dream.