Through dance, design, and facilitated dialogue, this ballet explores Poe’s search for beauty and justice in a world marked by suffering and cultural upheaval. Drawing from his works, The Raven, Annabel Lee, The Tell-Tale Heart, and Ligeia, the ballet unpacks Poe’s moral and metaphysical questions against the backdrop of a pre-Civil War America wrestling with slavery, grief, and gender inequality.
Can the soul endure when justice fails? And how do the imagined worlds of a man in torment reveal the moral unrest of an entire country?
Choreographer’s Note
The Curious Life of Edgar Allan Poe is a groundbreaking new ballet that reimagines Poe’s legacy—not as the father of horror, but as an honest voice grappling with the spiritual and moral tensions of his time. Set in a fractured, pre-Civil War America, this evening-length work explores themes of grief, beauty, divine justice, and human suffering through iconic tales like The Raven, Annabel Lee, The Tell-Tale Heart, and Ligeia.
Choreographed by Artistic Director Julianna Rubio Slager and Glorielle Niedfeldt, the production blends original movement, spoken word, sound design, and period-inspired visuals into an immersive theatrical experience. It invites audiences to engage Poe’s works not as escapist fiction, but as urgent, spiritual inquiries still relevant today.
The ballet is developed in collaboration with Dr. Harry Lee Poe—noted Poe scholar, and a descendant of the author. His insights shape the project’s literary and theological depth and will inform public programming and post-show conversations on the national tour.
Launching in the 2025–2026 season, the production will tour to universities, theaters, and civic centers. Each performance includes a facilitated talkback exploring questions of moral injury, imagination, justice, and longing. Select discussions will be captured in a short-form video series and paired with an academic companion guide for classrooms and communities.
In an age marked by disillusionment and distraction, The Curious Life of Edgar Allan Poe offers space for reflection, wonder, and spiritual honesty. Rather than reducing Poe to caricature, this project restores him as a complex moral witness—one whose questions echo urgently in our own time.
Meet the Choreographers
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Julianna is the Co-Founder and Artistic Director of Ballet 5:8. A Mexican-American choreographer, she creates original ballets that explore faith, culture, and the human condition. Her works have been called “bold” and “visually arresting,” blending classical ballet with rich narrative and emotional depth. Julianna’s choreography centers marginalized voices and brings thought-provoking stories to stages across the country.
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Glorielle is a Chicago-based choreographer, dancer, and educator whose movement roots draw from ballet, West African, and Afro-Caribbean traditions. As co-choreographer for The Curious Life of Edgar Allan Poe, she brings a layered, rhythmically complex voice to the work. Her choreography examines historical memory and cultural resilience, creating space for dialogue and connection through dance.
Synopsis
We begin with the earliest fracture: Poe’s mother, Eliza, dies of tuberculosis. A ghostly presence, she hovers beyond reach. The young Edgar is taken in by the Allans, a wealthy family in Richmond who enslave people. The household’s beauty is built on labor that remains invisible to Poe—until it isn’t. Glorielle Niedfeldt’s choreography shapes the ensemble: grounded, cyclical, a presence both mournful and persistent. They mourn with Poe, but also call him to awareness.
Poe grows. He receives a privileged education but feels unanchored—his foster father withholds both support and affection. Frances Allan, his foster mother, offers glimpses of grace. The tension builds. The enslaved and servants shift from background to central force. Their gaze sharpens. Their silence begins to speak.
As a young adult, Poe falls in love with Virginia Clemm. Their marriage is real, delicate, and haunted by illness. Virginia becomes a muse, a saint, a symbol of sacrificial love. The choreography turns oceanic: fabric waves, soft suspension, breath as movement. When she dies, she is carried not in despair but reverence.
Poe writes The Tell-Tale Heart and unravels. A black rope spills from his pen, binding him. The ensemble—embodied memory, embodied guilt—tightens it. The word “GUILT” pulses through the space. Poe tries to write his way out, but the truth is louder.
Then comes The Raven. This is no metaphor. The Raven, embodied as a Black dancer, carries the weight of silenced history. Poe tries to ignore it. He cannot. The Raven’s movement is angular, relentless. The ensemble surrounds him—not with chaos, but with clarity. “Nevermore,” they whisper. And something inside him breaks open.
In The Masque of the Red Death, Poe imagines a ball of elites hiding from a plague. Red Death enters—majestic, terrible, unstoppable. Drawing on African diasporic movement, Glorielle gives the character divine force. The aristocracy collapses beneath the judgment they never thought would come. For the first time, Poe sees it all. Not as a critic. As a participant.
The world hushes. In Ligeia, a new vision arrives—love that transcends death. Ligeia is not Virginia. She’s more than that. Eternal. Ethereal. The ensemble becomes starlight, breath, rhythm without weight. Poe doesn’t resist. He follows.
Finally, in Forgiving, Poe sheds everything: his jacket, his fear, his persona. He kneels, arms outstretched. The same bodies who once moved unnoticed—servants, slaves—now gather with sacred authority. They do not judge. They receive. Grace enters without spectacle. Only stillness, only light.
The final image is quiet. A cross of candles behind him. Poe’s body open. No longer trying to explain the world—just ready to be remade by it.
