Ballet 5:8 has a track record of presenting world class ballet coupled with innovative storytelling that feels not only accessible, but urgent for today. A few of their past performances presented work centered on loaded topics such as postpartum depression with “La Llorona,” and otherness with “Bareface.” This fall, their fourteenth season began with the “BIOS Project,” where they unearthed untold stories of women living in Chicago. Now, the topic at hand is beauty, and the company expands on the attraction of vulnerability and the sharing of the stories we leave behind. 

“Beauty Will Save the World” premiered on October 11th at the Harris Theatre. The program opened with “Dia de los Vivos” (2021), choreographed by the company’s visionary Founder and Artistic Director Julianna Rubio Slager. Dressed in all black sweetheart neckline dresses, the ballerinas laid gracefully on the stage as electric cream candles filled the air with a dimly lit spiritual essence.  One by one, the ten dancers began to elevate their light, illuminating their individual and collective truths. As the dancing became more grounded and broke more rules, I realized, “Dia de los Vivos” had an old soul; I had experienced it before.  

This time, the work felt a little different. The Huasteco-style rhythms felt more loaded. There was something palpable in the atmosphere. A gust of wind popped the color underneath a soloist’s rotating black dress. The pop of color captivated our attention and took the work to another level, as Ballet 5:8’s longtime costume designer Lorianne Robertson tends to do. The Huasteco rhythms intensified, and we could feel them through our souls. As “Dia de los Vivos” ensued, the ensemble followed suit with the pops of color, revealing peaks of life and hope through the melancholic black attire with every turn. 

In the end, there was not only an explosion of color, but the reveal of traditional Mexican embroidery, filling the room with hope and heritage, reminding us that it is community, family, living out loud and the stories of our lineage that ultimately save us from ourselves.  

“These Quiet Moments,” choreographed by celebrated choreographer Kevin Jenkins, was a world premiere beautifully danced by Ballet 5:8 company members, Natalie Chinn and Christian English.  The duet swept us away with their chemistry, technical proficiency and seamless transitions, a nice airy contrast to the grounded energy of “Dia De los Vivos.”  

 “Birthday Variations” (1986), choreographed by Gerald Arpino, co-founder of the Joffrey Ballet, was originally commissioned by Becky D’Angelo in honor of her husband, Dino D’Angelo, founder of the Chicago Civic Center for the Performing Arts. Nearly forty years later, “Birthday Variations” still moved viewers to tears. Dancers graced the stage dressed in darling three-quarter length tulle tutus, designed by Stanley Simmons, that painted the scene in muted pastel prettiness. The movements were classic, with quick bourrées and all things quintessentially ballet. Although the ensemble gave us quite a stir, it was the six solo variations, each one unique in their elaborate adornment, care and mastery, that flooded me with emotion. Beyond the pomp and circumstance, there was a small yet grand gesture of love, of honoring someone’s life enough to create another breathing body of art. 

“The Sea is Flat” is a company favorite. Choreographed and with lighting design by Slager, the work evoked a sense of peace while revealing layers of depth and complexity. With shades of blue in the lighting, costumes and back scrim, the stage became a vast sea of life, flowing movement and truth. To an evocative score by Italian composer Ezio Bosso, endless turns, boundless jetés, and lifts done with fluidity allowed the audience to become mesmerized and soothed by the ongoing movement, encouraging us to explore our own connections with water, whether through the oceans crossed by our ancestors, or the lake that graces our daily commutes.

The memorable evening was ripe with surprises. There was a special vocal performance by tenor Rodrick Dixon, who also performed in “BIOS Project” last August. Slager’s lighting designs were a lovely treat, and breathtaking costumes and diverse choreographic works left us wondering, “what else can ballet be?” Ballet 5:8 not only looks beyond beauty but into beauty, into the heart of our stories and the bones of our society. “Beauty Will Save the World” reminded me of the power of dance and of this special company, who fearlessly try new things and who have aged like fine wine.

Read the review at https://seechicagodance.com/review/ballet-58-presents-beauty-will-save-the-world-at-harris-theatre

Choreographer Julianna Rubio Slager uses the traditional Mexican myth of La Llorona to highlight maternal mental health challenges—especially postpartum depression in women of color.

La Llorona is a traditional Mexican myth about Maria who, in a fit of jealousy and rage, drowns her children in a river after being spurned by her husband. Overwhelmed with grief after realizing what she has done, Maria is condemned to wander the Earth, searching for her lost children while wailing mournfully. My abuelo recounted to me the story of La Llorona as a young girl, warning me of the consequences of disobedience or wandering alone at night. 

What if there’s more to Maria than a cautionary tale? What if Maria, like so many Black and Latina women, including myself, suffered under the weight of postpartum depression? 

According to the National Institute of Mental Health, “Postpartum depression (PPD) occurs in approximately 15% of births.” Dr. Cheryl Tatano Beck wrote in the American Journal of Maternal/Child Nursing that, “women of color are significantly more likely to experience postpartum depressive symptoms compared with White women in the United States.” It’s a silent scourge across Black and Hispanic communities and one that has passed through my own home and my own mental wellness. After discovering my new project, Dr. Beck wrote, “I am blown away. It will help so many other people who do not know the depths of despair that postpartum depression can bring to the mother and her family.”

I’m the choreographer and Artistic Director of Ballet 5:8, a resident company at the Harris Theater in Chicago, and I’m also the mother of three beautiful children. However, I was unprepared for the severity of hormone withdrawal after giving birth to the second and third children. I had to continue to perform at work leading the organization, but something inside me was broken and I struggled through each day with intrusive thoughts of harm. To me, Maria is a person not unlike myself — a Latina who also struggles under the pressure of Marianisma and the need to present a perfect and polished figure. Tragically in the traditional myth, Maria never gets help and breaks under that pressure.

I’m choreographing La Llorona which imagines a better world for Maria. It tells her story, it validates her pain and it offers hope on the other side of sadness. I believe that the world would be a better place if women like Maria had a more robust awareness of what was happening inside their bodies and the caregivers of those who are suffering had language to understand the implications of postpartum depression. 

The National Museum of Mexican Art is a presenting sponsor for the work, placing this incredible piece into the rich history of Mexican work. RAICES Chicago Story Coalition will be offering support in chronicling and archiving the research, creation and presentation of the work so that it can be a point of inspiration for other Latine artists.

During an open rehearsal for the community, Andy Boeta, marketing manager of the local Orland Park Area Chamber of Commerce said, “Ballet 5:8’s take on the tale brings a whole new aspect onto the table. They are retelling the story, without changing the main idea of it, in a different way to convey a very important matter — mental health.”

Ballet 5:8 is set to unveil “Struggle and Resilience: Celebrating Black and Latina Women in the Arts,” an innovative evening of dance, spoken word, and music that aims to spotlight the impactful narratives of women traditionally underrepresented in classical ballet. On March 1, 2025, at the Kehrein Center for the Arts, this compelling production seeks to confront and reshape the landscape of the artistic community in Chicago.

by Felicia Apprey

The Ballet 5:8 is set to unveil “Struggle and Resilience: Celebrating Black and Latina Women in the Arts,” an innovative evening of dance, spoken word, and music that aims to spotlight the impactful narratives of women traditionally underrepresented in classical ballet. On March 1, 2025, at the Kehrein Center for the Arts, this compelling production seeks to confront and reshape the landscape of the artistic community in Chicago.

Reclaiming Ballet’s Voice in Chicago

 In a city whose major ballet institutions have historically been dominated by white men, “Struggle and Resilience” dares to challenge the status quo. Artistic Director Julianna Rubio Slager emphasizes the importance of elevating the voices of Black and Latina women within the arts, stating, “We are not here to be displayed once a year in a program. We’re a vital part of this city’s artistic ecosystem, and we’re here to stay.”

The event features a powerful lineup of works by visionary Black and Latina women, promising to weave together stories of struggle and empowerment:

• The Caged Bird Sings: A multidisciplinary ballet set to music by Kady Debelak and choreographed by Slager, inspired by Maya Angelou’s enduring poem.

• Transcendence by Tobin James: A ballet reflecting the perseverance of the human spirit.

• What’s a Woman Worth by Quina Aragon: A collaboration of spoken word and movement exploring themes of identity and strength.

• A New Work by Rachel Hutsell: This former New York City Ballet dancer offers an innovative take on modern womanhood.

• A New Work by Brittany Bradley: An electrifying celebration of individuality and cultural expression from a Chicago street dance artist.

• Frida Kahlo Solo by Silvita Diaz Brown: A poignant piece inspired by Kahlo’s life that embodies the intersection of pain, resilience, and creativity.

     Located in Chicago’s Austin neighborhood, the Kehrein Center for the Arts stands as an ideal venue for this significant production. Its mission to foster hope and transformation through artistic storytelling aligns beautifully with the event’s goal of amplifying marginalized voices.

Black and Latina women encounter unique challenges within the ballet community, where leadership positions remain dominated by white males. “Struggle and Resilience” seeks to break down these barriers, providing a much-needed platform for artistry and narratives often overlooked.

     More than just a performance, “Struggle and Resilience” serves as a celebration of artistry and a bold step toward inclusivity in ballet. Audiences are invited to reflect, engage, and participate in this vital conversation.

By Cate Rees-Hessel with Flo Mano and Wes Hessel

“La Llorona” Turns Legend to Lesson

Ballet 5:8's performance at Harris Theater on October 5th and 6th brought to life the Mexican folklore of La Llorona, highlighting themes of mental health and family support. Choreographed by Julianna Rubio Slager, the performance was followed by a mini-concert featuring an all-female mariachi band.

Ballet 5:8, under the direction of the enormously talented and lovely Julianna Rubio Slager, wowed audiences with performances at Harris Theater the weekend of October 5th and 6th. Once again this stellar dance troupe brings us the best of ballet, in this case inspired by a story in Mexican folklore of a woman who loses her children to death, and in her own passing, is doomed to roam near bodies of water, looking for her drowned niñas or niños.

Ms. Slager has choreographed a beautifully crafted work that brings to light the importance of mental health, specifically drawing on her struggles with postpartum depression after the births of two of her children. The truths she found in this legend are that no one should face their pain alone, and that sometimes, the greatest battles are the ones we fight within ourselves. It carries themes of survival and support by family. The shows were followed with a mini-concert in the lobby performed by an all-female mariachi band.

You have to love a faith-based dance company that entertains and enlightens. No one does this better than Ballet 5:8. Exquisite performers, stunning costumes, and world-class choreography make for an enriching theater going experience. For information on upcoming performances, including their 10th anniversary tradition “Beyond the Nutcracker”, and the Ballet 5:8 school, please visit their website at www.ballet58.org. 

A new ballet is putting the spotlight on moms struggling with postpartum depression. Based on a legendary Mexican tale, La Llorona, or the Weeping Woman, debuts Saturday at the Harris Theater in Chicago.

CHICAGO (WLS) -- A new ballet is putting the spotlight on moms struggling with postpartum depression.

Based on a legendary Mexican tale, La Llorona, or the Weeping Woman, debuts Saturday at the Harris Theater in Chicago.

Generations of children have grown up afraid of La Llorona but in this interpretation of the age-old Mexican tale, is the story of a mom just trying to find her way.

Ballet 5:8 choreographer and mom of three, Julianna Rubio Slager is Mexican-American. She said this performance is personal and plays out her own experience after the birth of her second child.

"I felt very disconnected. I felt like he was somebody else's child," said Rubio Slager.

After seeking help, Rubio said it was her sister who inspired her to put the pain to purpose.

"My younger sister, when she had her second child, called me crying one day and said, I keep having this vision of me stabbing my baby with scissors. And she said, I don't know what's wrong with me," said Rubio Slager.

Those dark thoughts are seen in la Llorona. It's told through the eyes of Maria, a mother who becomes violent during her postpartum depression. And like many moms, taught to withhold feelings for the benefit of having a family.

It's why every detail from the whimsical, vibrant skirts to the hand-stamped embroidery, was made with intention by Lorianne Robertson who plays the role that symbolizes postpartum depression.

"My goal is that you would see the hard but that you would also see the beauty that comes out of that." said Lorianne Robertson.

It's a beauty often overlooked for Latina moms.

According to the Illinois Department of Public Health, Hispanic women were less likely to report and be diagnosed with postpartum depression than their white counterparts.

"Art is something that can help us understand the world that we're in," said Rubio Slager.

Rubio Slager said the ballet is meant to bring awareness but also be a love letter to the ones she fought for.

"I would want them to just look at this and go," said Rubio Slager.

"My mama loves me so, so much to fight tooth and nail, to claw her way back from that darkness. And I hope that they see it, and they're reminded of just how valuable and precious they are to me," said Rubio Slager.

A review by John von Rhein of Chicago a cappella's collaboration with Ballet 5:8, blending Tallis' Lamentations with contemporary dance.

Chicago a cappella’s artistic enterprise has taken the vocal ensemble and its receptive audience in directions that effectively blur the distinctions between musical genres, styles and sensibilities, across the centuries.

The group’s season opener Friday evening in Allen Recital Hall at DePaul University’s Holtschneider Performance Center, added another such venture to the list—its first-ever collaboration with a ballet company.

The program, curated and exactingly prepared by music director John William Trotter, was built around the literature of lamentation—music that encapsulates the search for “meaning and comfort in the face of the tragic circumstances of life” but also that “helps us celebrate what we most value,” as he observed in his program note.

That seems an accurate description of the two sets of Lamentations of Jeremiah by the English Renaissance master Thomas Tallis that formed the centerpiece of Friday’s time-traveling exploration of musical longing, loss, despair and consolation. Joining the ensemble for the Tallis was the all-female Chicago dance company Ballet 5:8, performing apposite choreography by its artistic director, Julianna Rubio Slager.  

Cramming five dancers and ten singers onto a single tiny stage might have seemed an invitation to disaster but the result in fact proved quite the contrary. The dancers were confined to a narrow strip of stage in front of the row of vocalists. While this arrangement precluded any real spatial depth, dance movement complemented the musical performance to remarkably moving effect.

Just as the mournfulness of Tallis’ Latin settings from the Old Testament was enhanced by Chicago a cappella’s acute purity of sound, smoothness of blend and chaste spirituality, the equally seamless lines of Rubio Slager’s choreography added a satisfying layer of corporeal expressivity.

While the music moved with a timeless sense of abandonment and desolation, the dance element was far more “active”: as the voices appealed for Jerusalem to repent, a single dancer extended supplicating arms amid motionless figures crumpled to the floor. At other moments the movement vocabulary— torsos tilted and twisted with grief, backs and legs arched in pain, bodies borne as if in a funeral procession—illuminated the music without slavishly mirroring its imagery. A remarkable sense of intimate grieving  pervaded the whole.

There will be alternating sets of dancers for the remaining three performances; Friday’s quintet was excellent, as were the singers.

Excellent was also the word for the vocal performances on the first half of the program.

While the lack of resonance in the 140-seat hall put motets by Palestrina and Victoria at a slight disadvantage, the acoustic made certain that one caught every word clearly in fare ranging from traditional folk songs in flavorsome arrangements by Trotter, to Russian Orthodox hymnody by Pavel Chesnokov, to pieces by living composers Sarai Hillman and Saunder Choi.

The most striking of the contemporary works was Hillman’s Refuge and Safety, a setting of Psalm 59 that is part of a larger collection of vocal pieces based on biblical texts. Hillman, a winner of the group’s successful (and now widely imitated) HerVoice competition and mentorship program in 2021, layers overlapping sustained and single notes, playing with repeated, aspirated phrases to evoke a vivid sense of introspective unreality. Wonderfully precise of ensemble, the pitch-perfect singers were fully inside the music (sans conductor, as they were throughout the concert), making one eager to hear Hillman’s collection in its entirety.

CHICAGO CLASSICAL REVIEW

Ballet 5:8 will premiere “La Llorona” at the Harris Theater reimagining the classic Mexican myth through the lens of its choreographer’s own journey dealing with postpartum depression.

Choreographer and artistic director, Julianna Rubio Slager sat down with us to share more and we got a preview performance.

Text by Oliver Sava

Photograph by Mustafa Hussain

September 17, 2024, 6:00 am

Julianna Rubio Slager first heard the Mexican legend of La Llorona as a scary bedtime story. After she grew up and became a mother herself, she came to be fascinated by the tragedy of a woman who drowns her children in a jealous rage. Inspired by her own struggles with postpartum depression, Slager, artistic director of the Orland Park–based dance troupe Ballet 5:8, reimagines the myth in a full-length piece debuting at the Harris Theater.

The Spirit Mover – Chicago Magazine

Part of “Best of Fall” — click to explore in Chicago Magazine’s October 2024 feature.

“I tend to reevaluate stories about women, knowing that a lot of those older cultural myths were told from this perspective where women are either turned into cautionary tales or they’re objectified,” Slager says. In this case, she transforms La Llorona into the physical manifestation of a young mother’s postpartum ordeals, visualizing how the hormonal cocktail intensifies her emotions. “I extrapolate those sensations into a movement that is giving that feeling of anxiety or depression: the weight of it, the heaviness of it, the feeling of not being able to get out of bed or like you’re trudging through mud.”  

Working with an ensemble of 28 dancers, Slager spent months exploring the central concept from multiple angles. The cheating husband of the original story, for instance, is now an ill-equipped caretaker struggling to console his paranoid wife. Slager hopes these new perspectives help audience members process their own feelings, just as the undertaking has for her. “I’m able to cope better when I can let those emotions have a physical form. They’re able to say their piece, and it’s easier for them to be at rest.”

Deeply Rooted Dance Theatre among fall season highlights – Chicago Sun-Times

Click to read the article on the Chicago Sun-Times about fall dance highlights in Chicago.

“Ballet 5:8 brings brilliant poise and grace to The Athenaeum Center. Juliana Rubio-Slager talks about her vision behind Ballet 5:8's "BareFace" and the importance of sharing the perspectives of women in all the arts.”

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]]>Shelley Irwin Morning ShowNewsBroadcastInterviewPerformanceBallet 5:8Tue, 18 Apr 2023 16:16:00 +0000https://www.ballet58.org/press/fox325e9dbb8efe4e741430661dbf:5e9dc8dd837b395fc07b84d7:64494d6d0563044e86da121eThank you to the whole Fox32 team for visiting out studios

Watch on WGN’s website.

Ballet 5:8 is a women-led ballet company and its keeping the spirit of Women’s History Month alive with a one-night-only performance. Here to share more about the world premiere of ‘Bareface’ is co-founder and artistic director Julianna Rubio Slager.

‘BareFace’ – April 22nd
7:30 pm – 10 pm

Harris Theater for Music and Dance: 205 E. Randolph Street

Daytime Chicago airs weekdays on WGN from 10 a.m. – 11 a.m.

Watch on WGN’s website