Julianna Rubio Slager
Co-Founder & Artistic Director, Ballet Five Eight
A choreographer whose work brings literature, history, and the experiences of women to the ballet stage. Over the past fourteen years, she has created more than 70 ballets and built a professional company dedicated to original theatrical work.
Ballet as
theatre.
Rubio Slager creates full-length narrative ballets and contemporary ensemble works. Her choreography draws on classical ballet, theatrical composition, and the expressive possibilities of bodies in relationship.
Explore the work →Her choreography is concerned with what happens between people.
An individual facing a collective. The weight one person carries for another. The moment a gesture becomes an act of resistance. Rubio Slager builds these relationships into the structure of her ballets, using the ensemble as an active part of the drama.
“Rubio-Slager’s choreography flows like chimes; even when the wind has passed the beauty, the interaction lingers.”D'onminique Boyd-Riley / See Chicago Dance / BareFace
Selected works
The House on Mango Street
2026
La Llorona
2024
Scarlet
2017
The Curious Life of Edgar Allan Poe
2026“From the beginning moment to the end of the show I felt the emotions of the story being told by all the actors. I was literally feeling their pain.”Audience member / La Llorona / Albuquerque, October 2026
Choreographic reel
An artist.
A company builder.
Julianna Rubio Slager is a third-generation Mexican-American choreographer who co-founded Ballet Five Eight in 2012. As its Artistic Director and Resident Choreographer, she has developed a repertoire of more than 70 original ballets, including 19 full-length works.
She was named a 2023 National Visiting Fellow at the School of American Ballet and was a finalist for the 2023 Chicago Dancemakers Forum Lab Artists program.
Read the full biography →“The movement leads from an emotional center into high value dance moments.”Julianna Rubio Slager / ArtsATL interview
Commissions
& collaborations
Available for new choreography, repertory staging, residencies, and teaching engagements.
jslager@ballet58.org →