Ballet 5:8 Presses Forward Locally and Nationally with the Help of Illinois Arts Council Agency Grant

ORLAND PARK, IL - Ballet 5:8’s Ninth performance season is not looking anything like the company had originally planned 10 months ago, but an Illinois Arts Council Agency grant is helping the company press forward, even into uncharted territory. Known largely by its shorthand name, “Ballet 5:8,” nonprofit arts organization Ballet Five Eight NFP has been awarded a $17,000 grant for operating support from the Illinois Arts Council Agency (IACA). The grant will be partially supporting Ballet 5:8 operations between October 2020 and August 2021. With a mission dedicated to innovative storytelling and breathtaking dance, Ballet 5:8 invests in communities at home and across the nation through a mix of professional performances and accessible, high-quality dance education. 

“Limitation sparks creativity” has been the recent mantra of Ballet 5:8 Artistic Director and Resident Choreographer Julianna Rubio Slager. “We can’t perform in theaters - let’s perform online, outside, in more non-traditional spaces that can be socially distanced.” Ballet 5:8 is grateful for the support of IACA, as well as the hundreds of local community members and fans from across Illinois and beyond, who are making Ballet 5:8’s relatively unconventional 2020/21 Season possible. The company typically performs in theaters both locally and nationally. This year, live performances are limited to Illinois, but three online programs will open up the company’s work to a national, even an international audience.  

Through the month of October, live showings of Artistic Director and Resident Choreographer Julianna Rubio Slager’s world premieres The Golden Sessions and Dry Bones will be available to small, socially-distanced groups in Ballet 5:8’s studios in Orland Park. The Golden Sessions, inspired by C.S. Lewis The Four Loves, uses music and movement to create a poetic interpretation of love and its many colors. Dry Bones, which tells the epic ancient story of the Valley of Dry Bones of the prophet Ezekiel, will be featured October 24-25 only. “Dry Bones,” Slager says, “is a ballet about the times when hope is in tatters, but we still believe in a God of resurrection, a God of life.” The performance series will also include the return of three favorite Ballet 5:8 works, including Still Waters by award-winning guest choreographer Kevin Jenkins, with original music by Paula Dreyer. Tickets to these professional performances are just $20, thanks to support from sources like the IACA. 

Ballet 5:8’s state of the art 12,000 square foot location in Orland Park, a blessing since the company moved there in early 2019, is turning out to be particularly advantageous in light of current social distancing requirements. The studio’s black box theater can accommodate up to 40 audience members in socially-distant seating configurations. Ballet 5:8’s October performance series in the space, as well as its recently completed free-to-the-public Outdoor Series, are providing Illinoisans a rare opportunity to experience live professional ballet at a time when most major arts organizations, including many in Chicago, are simply not performing. The ample studio space is also benefiting hundreds of local children, youth and aspiring professional artists who are still able to attend their classes in person, dancing in their socially-distant “dance squares” in small groups. This December, students and Ballet 5:8 professional dancers will rotate performing in a series of reimagined live Beyond the Nutcracker EXPERIENCE performances in the black box theater, also for small, socially-distanced audience groups, as well as Ballet 5:8’s first made-for-film version of the company’s beloved holiday production.  

Ballet 5:8 is grateful for the many ways that the IACA’s continued support of arts organizations across the state results in stronger Illinois communities through the arts. Thanks to funding from the IACA and other sources, Ballet 5:8 brings meaningful experiences with professional dance to more than 12,000 community members in the Chicago South Suburbs, Illinois and across the U.S. each season. Donated support allows Ballet 5:8 to employ talented professional dancing artists and choreographers, makes free performances like Ballet 5:8’s recent Outdoor Series possible, and enables Ballet 5:8 to keep admission to ticketed performances $20-$25 on average. Support also partially-subsidized tuition for Ballet 5:8 School of the Arts programs and provides financial aid to dancers in need. In a year of nation-wide economic difficulty due to the ongoing pandemic, this accessibility is especially impactful. 

ABOUT BALLET 5:8 - Founded in 2012, Ballet 5:8 is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit arts organization based in Orland Park, IL, just outside of Chicago. The mission of Ballet 5:8 is to engage communities in Chicago, the Midwest and across the nation in conversation of life and faith through innovative storytelling and breathtaking dance. Ballet 5:8 also promotes thriving artistic communities through dance performance and education.