We were lucky to catch up with Skylar Males recently and have shared our conversation below.

Skylar, appreciate you joining us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

I was a community engagement dance teacher for the Joffrey ballet. We were deployed to public schools all around chicago. Often in the south and west side which is disproportionately underserved. I realized just how segregated Chicago is. Once someone is born in a neighborhood, the city has made it nearly impossible for them to leave that neighborhood or explore others. So I came up with the idea for my nonprofit where I focused on how we could connect performing artists in chicago with job opportunities, professional development, or other communities.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I grew up as a trained dancer. At 18 I got accepted into the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Dance program. I graduated with my BFA in Dance. After working in the field for a few years, I founded my nonprofit Nexus Performing Arts. We have three main aspects to the company. Afterschool programming for kids, breakdance battle events and Broadway caliber shows. We have a particular focus on Breakdancing and contemporary dance. Our focus is to help artists cross over the invisible segregation lines that the city has created. Each neighborhood has amazing culture and community. We don’t want to just pull artists from their south and west side communities into downtown or north side, we want north side and downtown artists to go to the south and west side as well. It’s a conversation between communities. We label underserved communities as “poor” but they are anything but. They are rich with culture, innovation, artistry and knowledge.

Has your business ever had a near-death moment? Would you mind sharing the story?

Running a nonprofit has its challenges. Running a nonprofit that highlights breakdance which is predominantly black and brown, as a white woman has a whole new level of challenges. Most people don’t want to give to street culture or dance. They don’t understand the value. And since we are a nonprofit we heavily rely on donations. I have faced many scares where I needed to dump my own savings and investments to make payroll. I have been blessed in that my parents are able to provide donations to help as well. 2023 proved to be a huge year and where we struggled the most. We grew too fast an our funding couldn’t keep up. If it weren’t for my family, we wouldn’t have continued.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

I try to be a boots on the ground CEO. I knew that if I wanted to help the community I needed to show up for the communities. Taking time to talk to people and ask them about their experience or what they need has helped tremendously.

Contact Info:

• Website: Nexusperformingarts.org
• Instagram: Nexus performing arts