Ballet 5:8 brings 'Mi Familia' to National Museum of Mexican Art
CHICAGO - Ballet 5:8, a Chicago-area performing company in its fourth season, will be taking a special ballet to the National Museum of Mexican Art at 7 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 11.
Dedicated to creating and performing "honest, relevant, breathtaking dance performances," Ballet 5:8 looks forward to sharing hope, inspiration and a little bit of Spanish flair with the Pilsen neighborhood through a performance featuring Ballet 5:8 artistic director Julianna Rubio Slager's "Mi Familia."
The performance is open to the public and does not require advance tickets - attendees are asked to consider making a $10 donation per person. The performance is just one of many events in October taking place as part of Chicago Artist Month, the 20th annual celebration of Chicago's vibrant arts community presented by the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events.
Drawn from the choreographer's own personal experiences growing up in a multiracial family, "Mi Familia" celebrates the beauty of family and relationships that can be experienced by all people, transcending racial and cultural differences. The work has have a fun-filled flavor, utilizing traditional Spanish flamenco music and movements to create a lively, relatable picture. The work has been called "joyous", a "lively celebration," and a "colorful spectacle" by Lynn Shapiro of SeeChicagoDance.
Though they may be "hot button" issues in today's time and culture, problems like racism and various forms of slavery have plagued humanity all throughout time. Some of these problems come out of intentional malice toward certain kinds of people, but for many of us, unkind actions and attitudes toward others who seem different from us are born out of an innocent sense of fear. It can seem natural for us to want to keep our distance from others who are unfamiliar - we fear that we won't be able to relate to people whose appearance, language, and social habits, even food or music is different from that which we are familiar with. The question is, are these fears valid?
While there are very many ways in which people can be genuinely different from each other, artistic director Julianna Rubio Slager wanted to create a work that showcases and celebrates the "sameness" that we all share, even with our differences. If you look beyond appearance, language, social habits, food, music, everything - you will always be left with people. Each culture may have different attributes, but we are people all the same, and at our core we live life alongside others in the context of families and various relationships. Highs and lows, joys and sorrows are all shared with the others we live life with, and differences aside, these life experiences can give us something familiar that we can see and celebrate in the lives of others, no matter how different those others may seem to us
ABOUT BALLET 5:8 - Founded in 2012, Ballet 5:8 a 501(c)3 nonprofit arts organization. With eight professional dancers and a continually growing repertoire of classical and contemporary works, Ballet 5:8 performs in a variety of settings across Chicago and Midwest region in addition to teaching workshops and master classes. Ballet 5:8 School of the Arts, the company's education arm, offers accessible, high-quality ballet training to over 150 students each year at its two locations in Frankfort, Illinois and in the Beverly neighborhood of Chicago.