San Antonio ballet tackles sex trafficking
A Chicago-area dance company is bringing a new kind of ballet to San Antonio that shines a light on today’s social injustices.
Next month, Ballet 5: 8 will be at the Lila Cockrell Theater in San Antonio to perform Bold , the biblical story of Gomer, whose husband redeems her from another man. The ballet deals with the sexual objectification of women and raises awareness of the trauma women face in the sex trafficking industry.
The dance company aims to communicate the realities of human life in a graceful way by telling true stories and touching a sensitive chord with its audience.
“So many businesses will focus on stories that don’t relate to current life. We want to challenge people’s thinking with something closer to the current world and give them something to chew on, â€said principal ballerina Lorrianne Robertson.
Preparing for a show like this goes beyond the physical demands of the performance. The company’s ballerinas have done a lot of research into sex trafficking stories, including hearing testimonials from survivors and watching hours of interviews with traffickers.
The show changed Robertson’s perception of human trafficking and showed him how widespread the problem is around the world and even in the United States. She said her eyes opened after hearing stories of women who were brainwashed into sex trafficking by their partners and those who turned to sex work because they could not put food on the table.
“It’s really something that could happen to anyone,†said Robertson. “Before I started this I didn’t have a big heart for this sort of thing, but now I have so much deeper empathy and I want to help make a change.”
Dealing with difficult topics is not uncommon for Ballet 5: 8. Since the company’s inception in 2011, artistic director Julianna Rubio Slager has produced abortion-centric shows with her show “Mother”, the prison system in “4501” and depression with “Dia de Los Vivos”.
“The meaning behind the work is one of the things that drew me to Ballet 5: 8, and one of the reasons I stayed,†said Robertson, speaking of his nine years with the company.
Bold will be coming to San Antonio at 7 p.m. on November 6. Tickets start at $ 22 and can be purchased online at bit.ly/3ptgnZt.
Five percent of ticket proceeds will be donated to Randomed Life, a non-profit organization that fights human trafficking.