Julianna Rubio Slager is happy to share a favorite work with Southland dance fans.
“It'll be our first show at Governors State University,” said Slager, choreographer and founder of Ballet 5.8. The dance company will present its “La Llorona” on Oct. 18 at The Center for Performing Arts at Governors State University in University Park.
The ballet “La Llorona" is inspired by a Mexican folk tale of a mother who roams the land crying after her children have been drowned. Slager said she wanted to offer another look at this tale through her dance.
Slager added her perspective on the folk tale changed after her own experience with motherhood.
“After I had children, La Llorona took on a different meaning for me,” she said. Slager explained that after she had her second child, she suffered with postpartum depression. According to the choreographer, it was usually assumed that this crying mother or La Llorona, who is named Maria, was just an evil woman and not a woman that was afflicted with real mental anguish or physical illnesses.
“ Maria is not a ghost story to me, she’s a woman under pressure,” Slager said. “This ballet gives her back her voice.”
“La Llorona” premiered in the fall of 2024 at The Harris Theatre in Chicago.
Slager said, as a choreographer, it is music, first and foremost, that inspires her to create a dance composition.
“Making music visible is always fun for me,” she said. Slager added she also likes to take something complex and make it more simple so people can grasp it or engage with it better.
“That’s when art is at its best,” she said.
Ballet 5.8, a company based in Chicago, and founded by Slager, who is Mexican-American, has a mission of striving to make “ballet more human, more diverse and more redemptive,” according to a recent press release.
Recently the company received an NEA Big Read grant awarded by The National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest. The grant supports a citywide celebration of the book “The House on Mango Street.” Ballet 5:8 will present a new dance work based on the book next Spring.
FYY: Ballet 5:8 will present “La Llorona” at 2 p.m. Oct. 18 at The Center for Performing Arts at Governors State University, University Park. Tickets range from $25 to $74. Tickets for children and students are $20. Visit centertickets.net. call 708-235-2222.