Don't miss 'La Vie en Rose,' a contemporary ballet

If you missed Kara Roseborough in Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre's "Black Ballerina," you can see her perform this Saturday at 7:30 a.m. in her own show, "La Vie en Rose," at Evanston's Studio5 Performing Arts Center.

For tickets, click here.

"La Vie en Rose," tells the story of two struggling waitresses who leave their jobs behind to pursue careers as professional dancers. Through the trials and tribulations of their journey, the two dancers come to embrace that which makes them unique.

"La Vie en Rose" is a modern ballet set to jazz and blues standards and features a three-dancer cast, including Roseborough, Elsye Jost, and Victoria Coleman. The original piece, which has since been expanded, premiered in 2018 at the Charleston Music Hall. It's is a work-in-progress showing in anticipation of a larger production in 2020. There will be a brief post-show discussion.

"I was inspired to choreograph 'La Vie en Rose' given my own experiences as a professional dancer working in the restaurant industry," Roseborough told me. "When I was dancing in Charleston, I would spend my nights hosting, listening to the restaurant music playlist, and choreographing in my head. Many of those songs are featured in this production."

Roseborough says she wanted to explore the intersection between ballet, jazz, and Broadway while creating a new story ballet to more contemporary music than that featured in the classical ballet cannon.

"It was also important to me to feature black music artists, as we don't often hear their work in the ballet world."

All that said, says Roseborough, there is a universality and familiarity to this story that she hopes connects with people of all ages and from diverse backgrounds.