Family and community are central to Julianna Rubio Slager, so it’s natural they show up as themes in her ballet performances.
One of the dances in her upcoming Ballet 5:8 production, Beauty Will Save the World, the ballet Dia de los Vivos (Day of the Living), tells the story of a young girl struggling with depression who is visited by the spirits of her family, drawing from the traditions of Dia de los Muertos — the Day of the Dead.
“They remind her that what makes life worth living is community and family,” explained Slager, who had her own run-in with depression. “It’s almost Dickensian/It’s a Wonderful Life … that pain is part of life we can’t escape, but yet there is so much beyond that.”
Based in Orland Park, Ballet 5:8 is bringing Beauty will Save the World to the Harris Theatre for Music and Dance in Chicago at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 11. (https://www.harristheaterchicago.org/performance/beauty-will-save-world).
The production also includes Birthday Variations (Gerald Arpino and staged by Kim Sagami); All These Quiet Moments (Kevin Jenkins); The Sea is Flat (Rubio Slager); and an excerpt from the BIOS Project: Lisa (Jasmine Getz).
The performance coincides with Ballet 5:8’s Annual Gala and its theme this year of the Japanese art form Kintsugi, or mending broken pottery with gold.
Born in Albuquerque, New Mexico but growing up in Michigan and then Chicago, Slager danced in productions all over before co-founding Ballet 5:8 in 2012 with Amy Kozol Sanderson. Her family is originally from Mexico and New Mexico. Her grandparents are Messianic Jews.
“I was a ballerina since I was little,” said Slager. “I saw the Nutcracker on PBS and that was it for me.
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“I was so enthralled with ballet and how beautiful it was and begged my mom to put me in lessons and she did,” Slager said.
She’s also proud of being unique in her role as a Latina artistic director of a ballet company.
“It is unusual because a lot of ballet was founded in Northern Europe and Russia and parts of Asia … so there was not a lot of influence in Central and South America up until the last 100 years,” said Slager. “There’s definitely been more of a movement of having more classical ballet in Cuba, Puerto Rico and now Mexico.”
She now lives in Tinley Park with her husband, Jeremy Slager, and their children.
She also considers the south suburbs an integral part of their productions, not only because they are based in Orland Park but also because some of their dancers live in the region and many others come from all over the world when they join.
“It’s really cool that our city, through all this, is becoming such a central place and I’m really proud of and love that we can offer that to the community in the south suburbs,” she said.
There’s also the down-to-earth nature of the ballets she helps create, said Ellington Nichols, company artist and company manager for Ballet 5:8 who also lives in Tinley Park.
“It’s really special to create works that are very meaningful and tell a bigger story,” said Nichols. “We don’t do just the typical Swan Lake or Sleeping beauty but … tell stories of life and faith that are more meaningful and spark discussions about our lives and human dignity.
“They’re really raw and real and I feel like you can relate to them a lot more than you can to the typical ballet show.”
Nichols said she loves working with Slager.
“She’s very unique and I really enjoy her creative process,” said Nichols. “She does a lot of research behind the scenes and we as a company do a lot of reading and historical research. … We’ve even gone to certain museums that have impacted certain stories we have told so we get the real story.
“The music she chooses also really adds to the whole ballet world.”
Janice Neumann is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.