How Faith Shapes Our Stage: Inside Ballet 5:8’s Creative Process
When people learn that Ballet 5:8 is guided by faith, they often assume that our choreography follows a strict set of themes or rules. But in reality, our creative process is anything but narrow. Faith doesn’t limit our work—it deepens it.
At Ballet 5:8, faith isn’t a genre. It’s a lens. A way of seeing the world that informs how we ask questions, how we care for people, and how we build stories that matter.
Creating from Conviction, Not Convention
We begin every ballet by asking: What’s true? What’s needed? What’s human?
Whether we’re exploring historical memory (La Llorona), moral imagination (The Curious Life of Edgar Allan Poe), or mythic longing (BareFace), our work is grounded in questions that transcend simple answers. We don’t create "Christian ballets." We create art that wrestles with beauty, brokenness, and redemption—because those are the themes we see throughout human experience.
Faith shapes what we notice and what we’re drawn to. It invites us to hold tension, not resolve it too quickly. It pushes us to tell stories that don’t preach but reveal—layer by layer, gesture by gesture—what it means to be alive.
The Studio as Sacred Ground
Inside the studio, faith informs how we treat one another. We begin rehearsals with prayer—not as performance, but as posture. We make space for silence, for reflection, for listening. The rehearsal room becomes a place where dancers are safe to take risks, to fail, to ask questions, to be human.
Our leadership team doesn’t shy away from difficult material. But we approach it with care. Faith doesn’t sanitize our work; it grounds our courage to go deeper. We’ve tackled themes like racism, war, grief, and trauma—not to provoke, but to open conversation. And always, to leave room for hope.
Collaboration, not Control
Choreographers at Ballet 5:8 aren’t expected to fit a mold. In fact, we invite artists from diverse backgrounds—culturally, stylistically, and spiritually—to bring their full selves into the room. The result is a repertoire marked by range: emotionally nuanced, thematically rich, and technically bold.
What binds us together isn’t ideology, but integrity. We share a desire to make work that says something true. And we believe faith can be a source of artistic freedom—not constraint.
Faith in the Wings and in the World
The real fruit of a faith-shaped process isn’t just in the choreography. It’s in the relationships built, the courage fostered, and the conversations sparked in the audience.
After performances, people tell us things like, “I saw myself in that piece,” or “That made me rethink how I view grief,” or simply, “Thank you for helping me understand how to be more compassionate.” These moments are reminders that faith and art are meant to meet people where they are—not with easy answers, but with honest beauty.