Obsession, grief, and passion, told through his tales.

On March 6, Ballet 5:8 brings The Curious Life of Edgar Allan Poe to South Bend for an evening of haunting storytelling, cinematic atmosphere, and emotionally charged dance.

This groundbreaking new ballet by Julianna Rubio Slager and Glorielle Niedfeldt reimagines the writer’s inner world through the stories that made him immortal. Blending neo-classical ballet with African Diaspora movement traditions, the production journeys through love, loss, madness, longing, and redemption with striking theatricality and emotional depth.

Supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities as part of America 250, the work explores Poe not merely as a literary icon, but as a man wrestling with grief, beauty, and the meaning of a fleeting life.

Poe believed a story should be experienced in one sitting. So shall we.

Through immersive stagecraft, spoken word, and a richly atmospheric score, audiences are drawn into a world where beauty and sorrow exist side by side — where memory lingers, shadows breathe, and every story asks what remains of us after loss.

“The conception of the ballet was stunning. There aren’t words to convey how it was able to capture the life of Poe and present it with dance. It was marvelous.”
— Hal Poe, author, Poe scholar, and living relative of Edgar Allan Poe

“Brilliant performance. It captured the melancholy feeling of Poe. A beautiful sort of sorrow with a tinge of mystery.”
— Chris Semtner, Curator of the Poe Museum

Come for the mystery. Stay for the heartbreak.