This article is part of the Sacred-Public Partnerships series, published in collaboration with Sacred Sector, an initiative of the Center for Public Justice. The series explores the ways in which faith-based organizations – the sacred sector – and government partner for good. Sacred-Public Partnerships focuses specifically on the intersection of the sacred sector, religious freedom, and government-administered social safety net programs and explores why partnership between government and the sacred sector is essential to the success of social services in the United States.
BY KATHRYN POST
Earlier this year, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) made headlines when a video of her dancing in college surfaced. Critics called the dancing scandalous, while others celebrated the congresswoman’s teenage glee. Ocasio-Cortez, for her part, responded with another video of her dancing, this time in front of her congressional office.
The perception of dancing as “scandalous” is not a new one, and it is certainly not unfamiliar to the Church. Historically, reformed circles condemned dancing as sinful; yet, today, many celebrate dancing as a worshipful art form. Julianna Slager, artistic director of Ballet 5:8, believes that dance—whether professional or otherwise—can be a sacred act.
Slager founded Ballet 5:8 in 2012 with Amy Sanderson. The women were seeking a dance company that embodied their Christian faith and aligned with their beliefs “on a deep soul level.” When they found none, they decided to create Ballet 5:8 School of the Arts and Ballet 5:8 Professional Company.
“Our name 5:8 is drawn from Romans 5:8, which says, ‘But God demonstrates his own love in this, that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us,’” said Slager. “The verse is clear that God was the one who made the first move when we couldn’t even think of him. That’s our goal: that we would reach out first, be the first ones to extend the hand of friendship toward the audience and show them that there is a God that deeply loves them.”
Now, seven years after its founding, Ballet 5:8 School of the Arts hosts over 250 students a year on campuses throughout Illinois and Indiana; in addition, the Professional Company performs for thousands in over 40 performances across the United States each year.
Unlike many professional dance schools, Ballet 5:8 hosts recreational dance classes for folks of all ages and abilities. Through weekly classes, students have opportunities to form friendships, exercise, experience good music, and enjoy their God-given bodies. At the same time, the school also offers classes for students seeking to refine their dancing abilities at a more rigorous level.
This variety of offerings is part of what allows Ballet 5:8 to transcend socio-economic and cultural divides. Slager admits that “ballet is traditionally terrible at bridging divisions.” However, she also insists that “there’s a way in which body language and dance can move us through language and socioeconomic backgrounds.”
Ballet 5:8 transcends social divisions through accessible classes, student scholarships, and by offering free public programming, low cost programming and tickets or gift certificates for veterans, single moms, cancer patients, and other groups. Through all this, Ballet 5:8 strives to live into its goal of sharing conversation and dance with a variety of people across all kinds of communities.
SACRED-PUBLIC PARTNERSHIPS IN DANCE
One of the ways Ballet 5:8 is able to make their classes and performances so accessible is through government partnerships. For the past few years, Ballet 5:8 has received grant funding through the Illinois Art Council Agency, a government agency established to “encourage development of the arts throughout Illinois.” This funding ensures that Ballet 5:8 students of all socio-economic backgrounds have equal opportunities to access the educational, spiritual, and health benefits of the studio’s dance classes. This demonstrates one way that government supports the common good and allows a range of human activities to flourish.
“One of the ways Ballet 5:8 is able to make their classes and performances so accessible is through government partnerships.”
Specifically, the funding has allowed the organization to move from being a startup to a mid-sized company, and it has expanded the scope of its performances, outreach and workshops. One of the most notable free public performances Ballet 5:8 holds is their annual government-sponsored showcase at the Herald Washington Library in Chicago.
“The Illinois Art Council is very supportive of our work of feeding the state of Illinois with beautiful and innovative art,” noted Slager. “It’s been great to see how their funding of Ballet 5:8 has been an important part of moving us forward into our next phase.”
INNOVATIVE STORYTELLING AND SACRED DANCE
In addition to its emphasis on faith, Ballet 5:8 is notable for its commitment to innovative storytelling through dance. At the school, students are taught to use their bodies to communicate in a way that transcends language. This same commitment is evident in the professional company’s performances.
“Good art sparks discussion and illuminates viewpoints that you may have or are different from your own,” said Slager. “It helps us as a community to have important dialogue about different thoughts, ideas, and ways of seeing the world.”
Ballet 5:8 encourages dialogue by designing its performances as participatory experiences; audiences are encouraged to identify the themes presented on stage so that they can explore thoughts, emotions, or ideas in new or different ways. For example, Slager’s original ballet, The Space in Between, is a dance adaptation of C.S. Lewis’ The Great Divorce. It encouraged viewers to ponder the nature of eternity, as well as themes such as isolation, joy, and reality as they encountered them through visuals and movement. Performances are also followed by “talk backs,” which allow audience members to ask the artistic director and other staff members about the production. The hope is that the nature of Ballet 5:8’s performances, as well as the “talk back” format, allows viewers to leave inspired, uplifted, challenged, and stirred.
“Dance allows us to communicate soul to soul, heart to heart, rather than mind to mind,” said Slager. “Sometimes the mind needs to be bypassed so the heart can really speak and the mind can really understand and have room to ponder.”
Christianity’s relationship with the human body is complex. “The body is something that, ever since the garden of Eden, has been full of shame,” Slager said. “That’s kind of where it starts, and because dance highlights the human body, it naturally sparks this innate controversy.”
Ballet 5:8 works to redeem the harmful, shame-wrapped narrative plaguing the way many of us—Christians especially—are taught to view our bodies. It reframes the body as a sacred vessel for worship, and, at times, an instrument of justice. With government partnerships bolstering its capacity, Ballet 5:8 shares the sacredness of the body with thousands each year, continuously transforming shame into beauty.
Kathryn Post is a writer and student at Yale Divinity School where she is pursuing her passion for religion journalism.
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