Ballet 5:8 • 15th Anniversary Season
Women on Fire
Four acclaimed women choreographers. Five powerful works. One extraordinary evening celebrating fifteen years of women shaping, sustaining, and reimagining ballet.
April 17, 2027 • 7:30 PM • Harris Theater, ChicagoHappening Now
Be part of what comes next.
On Stage
Poe + La Llorona
Our fall national tour brings bold, story-driven ballet to Baltimore, Albuquerque, and Elgin.
Get tickets →Holiday
Beyond the Nutcracker
Chicago • December 18–20. Step into Ballet 5:8’s reimagined holiday tradition.
Reserve seats →Train
Fall Enrollment
High-caliber ballet training in Orland Park, Beverly, and the Fox Cities.
Find your campus →Invest
Make the Work Possible
Help Ballet 5:8 create ambitious new work, expand access, and reach more communities.
Give today →On Tour Now
Stories that Move Us. Ideas that Stay With Us.
This fall, Ballet 5:8 brings two acclaimed story ballets to audiences across the country.
National Tour • Tickets On Sale
The Curious Life of Edgar Allan Poe
Baltimore • Albuquerque • South Bend
Chicago • December 18–20
Beyond the Nutcracker
Ballet 5:8’s reimagined holiday tradition invites families into a story of wonder, courage, and redemption—an imaginative holiday experience for longtime ballet lovers and first-time audiences alike.
Why Ballet 5:8
Ballet can hold more stories.
We are a women-led, Latino-led ballet company using the vocabulary and architecture of classical ballet to tell stories about faith, identity, family, cultural memory, justice, and human dignity.
From theaters and schools to libraries and community spaces, Ballet 5:8 creates encounters with beauty that invite people into conversation—and challenges assumptions about who ballet is for, where it belongs, and what it can say.
Support this work“That was so phenomenal and expressive, I can't even really call it ballet.”Audience Member, The Thick and the Clear Conference
Women on Fire • World Premieres
Women carry communities forward.
Two new works by Julianna Rubio Slager look at women from different angles: the unseen labor that sustains us, and the boldness, humor, resilience, and joy that refuse to be contained.
World Premiere
Women Who Carry Water
Built from oral histories and community story circles, this new ballet honors the often-unseen work through which women sustain families, communities, and institutions.
Discover the work
World Premiere
Chingonas
A bold, celebratory female voice: resilience, humor, courage, and the unapologetic vitality of women taking up space.
Discover the workNow Enrolling • Orland Park • Beverly • Fox Cities
Find your place at the School of Ballet 5:8.
Students of all ages receive comprehensive, high-caliber training rooted in classical ballet and informed by today’s professional dance world.
From first steps to pre-professional training, students are challenged toward excellence and invited to discover identity, confidence, and purpose through dance.
Your Place in the Story
Experience. Train. Partner. Invest.
There are many ways to become part of Ballet 5:8 and help this work move forward.
Train
Explore high-caliber training for children, teens, adults, and pre-professional dancers.
Explore the SchoolPartner
Bring touring productions, school performances, community programs, and residencies to your community.
Partner with usInvest
Make ambitious new work, artist employment, training, touring, and community access possible.
Give nowMomentum Worth Investing In
Growing audiences. Expanding access.
Ballet 5:8 is reaching new audiences, training the next generation, and building meaningful momentum nationwide.
March 19–20, 2027 • Wheaton
The Thick & the Clear
Faith, Imagination, and What Endures. An immersive weekend exploring C.S. Lewis, faith, imagination, and the arts through conversation, museums, shared meals, and live performance.
Early Bird registration is $225 through December 1.
Explore the conferenceMake What Comes Next Possible
Invest in stories that move us—and ideas that stay with us.
Your generosity supports artists, new choreography, student training, touring, and community programs that invite more people into the transformative power of ballet.
Help carry Ballet 5:8 into its next fifteen years.
Every gift expands what we can create, where we can go, and who can experience the work.
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