Ballet 5:8 National Tour
The Curious Life of Edgar Allan Poe
Obsession, grief, and passion, told through his tales. Ballet 5:8’s haunting new ballet brings Poe’s life, imagination, sorrow, and mystery to the stage through powerful storytelling and dance.
National Tour Dates
Hippodrome Theatre
Baltimore, Maryland
In collaboration with the International Poe Fest
Roy E. Disney Center for Performing Arts
Albuquerque, New Mexico
In collaboration with the National Hispanic Cultural Center
Morris Performing Arts Center
South Bend, Indiana
The Ballet
Poe’s life, reimagined through dance.
The Curious Life of Edgar Allan Poe is a groundbreaking new ballet by Julianna Rubio Slager and Glorielle Niedfeldt, blending neo-classical ballet and African Diaspora movement. Supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities as part of America 250, it reimagines Poe's life through his stories as a redemptive exploration of grief, beauty, and moral awakening.
Read the full synopsis
In the shadow of loss, Poe's inner world fractures into the stories he wrote, each episode pulling him toward beauty, terror, and the possibility of redemption. Love and grief braid together until the question becomes unavoidable: what do we do with the life we're given, before it vanishes?
Poe moves through an imagined psychological landscape where memory, desire, and dread collide. The stories that made him immortal emerge as reflections of the man himself: his losses, his longing, his tenderness, and his spirals.
What begins as an atmospheric descent becomes a reckoning: will grief swallow him, or transform him?
Poe believed a story should be experienced in one sitting. So shall we.
Story-first ballet
Atmospheric, theatrical, and emotionally clear, built for audiences who love literature, mystery, and live performance.
Immersive stagecraft
Spoken word, sound design, surreal imagery, and movement create a world of beauty, dread, and revelation.
American sound world
The score draws from major American composers, supporting the production’s historical and cultural lens.
Watch
Step inside the world of Poe.
Audience Response
“A beautiful sort of sorrow with a tinge of mystery.”
“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.”
— Harry Lee Poe
“Brilliant performance. It captured the melancholy feeling of Poe. A beautiful sort of sorrow with a tinge of mystery.”
— Chris Semtner
Featured Poe Scholars
Harry Lee Poe
Harry Lee Poe is an author, biographer, and Poe scholar whose work brings depth and historical context to the life and legacy of Edgar Allan Poe.
Chris Semtner
Chris Semtner is Curator of The Poe Museum in Richmond and a leading public interpreter of Poe's life, legacy, and material culture.
Music & Composers
A score rooted in American voices.
The score draws from major American composers, supporting the production's historical and cultural lens.
Meet the Choreographers
Julianna Rubio Slager
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 through classical ballet, rich narrative, and emotional depth.
Glorielle Niedfeldt
Glorielle is a Chicago-based choreographer, dancer, and educator whose movement roots draw from ballet, West African, and Afro-Caribbean traditions. As co-choreographer, she brings a layered, rhythmically complex voice to the work.
Inspiration Playlist
The sonic world behind the production.
Curious about the sonic world behind the production? This playlist informed the atmosphere, emotional palette, and pacing.
Tickets go live August 1
Come for the story. Stay for the mystery.
