Ana Mikaela Samson
Training and Honors
As an eager four-year-old, Maika briefly dabbled in ballet. She rediscovered dance when she took jazz classes at age nine, at the Center for Movement and Music. Seeing her natural talent, dance directress Tara Nepomuceno-Santos encouraged her to take ballet lessons again.
At CMM, she broadened her dance vocabulary, technique and versatility with five years of classical ballet under Tara Santos, Bubbles Encarnacion, Herbert Alvarez, and Ronilo Jaynario; jazz under Jenny Nebres, Love Llena, and Meg Cordova; and hiphop under Jog Nebres. Maika and her fellow CMM dancers topped the Junior B Division of the National Dance Category of the 2010 ABAP Dance Cup and won gold at the Junior Contemporary Category of the 2013 ABAP Ballet Competition.
Performances
In 2014, Maika danced in PBT’s Nutcracker, as part of the corps de ballet, then became a company apprentice. From her first year as an apprentice, aside from corps roles, Maika has been fortunate to have danced feature roles, as one of the Reed Flutes, Tea from China, and Arabian Coffee in Nutcracker; Big Swan in Swan Lake; Second Shade from Labayadere; and Chinese Dance in “Thatness, Thereness.”
In 2016, Maika represented PBT in dance.MNL, where she attended workshops under Victor Ursabia, Perry Sevidal, and Lisa Macuja. She also became a finalist at the 2016 CCP Ballet Competition. Maika was promoted to Company Artist in 2018. In the same year, US-based company Gaynor Minden chose her to be one of their brand ambassadors, the first Gaynor Girl in the Philippines.