BALLET FIVE EIGHT NFP
Honest, Relevant, Breathtaking Dance
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Programs and results
What we aim to solve
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Professional Performances
Today, Ballet 5:8 has a growing roster of professional dancers and an expanding repertoire of original, innovative works created by Slager and other contemporary creatives. The company shares the beauty, power and inspiration of professional dance with thousands of audience members each season across Chicago, the Midwest, and the nation through over 40 performances in settings ranging from professional theaters to school gyms.
Dance Education
Ballet 5:8's multifaceted dance education center, Ballet 5:8 School of the Arts, extends the company's mission to over 250 students each year at campuses in Orland Park, IL, Chicago (Beverly), Palos Heights, IL, and Valparaiso, IN. The school includes a nationally-recognized classical ballet training program, a range of recreational dance classes for all ages and levels of ability, and a uniquely nurturing environment where students thrive. Ballet 5:8 is passionate about training and equipping the artists of tomorrow and investing in local communities through accessible, high-quality dance education.
Student Performances
Ballet 5:8 School of the Arts' pre-professional performances bring inspiring, high-quality performances to the Chicago South Suburbs. These performances are highly accessible thanks to low ticket prices and serve over 2,100 audience members each year.
Where we work
External reviews
Photos
Videos
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Total number of paid seats filled for performances
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
Professional Performances
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Number of professional artists employed
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
Professional Performances
Type of Metric
Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Number of students enrolled
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
Dance Education
Type of Metric
Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues
Direction of Success
Increasing
Number of students who receive scholarship funds and/or tuition assistance
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
Dance Education
Type of Metric
Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Number of donors retained
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
Professional Performances
Type of Metric
Input - describing resources we use
Direction of Success
Increasing
Number of new donors
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
Professional Performances
Type of Metric
Input - describing resources we use
Direction of Success
Increasing
Total dollars paid to artists
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
Professional Performances
Type of Metric
Input - describing resources we use
Direction of Success
Increasing
Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
Ballet 5:8 has the unique ability to address several community needs on a local, regional, and national scale. The arts are often set aside, forgotten or ignored in today's busy, efficiency-addicted culture. However, when we invest in them, the arts can play an significant role building strong, healthy communities. For example, we know that students improve their academic performance when the arts play an active role in their life in-school and out of school. Moreover, professional dance provides an aesthetically pleasing experience that can inspire and uplift us. According to a recent study, those who watch ballet experience emotional and empathetic responses. In our world today, we are daily bombarded with news of suffering and disaster, we need more access to things that encourage empathy, inspire creativity, and begin conversations across cultures.
Ballet 5:8 makes the arts accessible to our local area through three dance education centers that serve over 250 students from 30 local communities in South Chicagoland each year. As a nonprofit, we keep tuition low and provide financial aid scholarships to make it possible for students of many different economic backgrounds to participate in dance taught by qualified, professional instructors. With 12 professional dancers on staff, Ballet 5:8 also serves people from all walks of life in our immediate community, the region, and the nation through professional performances that combine breathtaking dance with innovative storytelling. Again as a nonprofit, we rely on donated funds to cover the difference between ticket sales revenue and operating expenses. This allows us to keep ticket prices at an average of 1/3 of the “going rate" for similar quality performances, and to participate in many free-to-the-public performances. Ballet 5:8 is the only professional company and nonprofit dance education center in the greater Chicago area that is outside of city limits.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
Ballet 5:8 School of the Arts serves over 30 surrounding communities of its primary location in Frankfort, IL. We regularly serve more than 200 students with over 4,600 hours of programming. We have also steadily expanded the accessibility of our programs to serve students of all ages and levels of ability. We had 25 students participate in a new recreational program in 2016, and we were able to empower young men in the art of dance by offering a new boys-only dance class taught by one of our male company artists. We also opened a new location Valparaiso, IN in 2016 and saw 17 students enroll in classes with 22 students enrolled for this new season. We continue to serve students in Chicago's Beverly neighborhood since 2014. The School invests in sharing the arts with our communities through two annual student performances of full-length ballets. One of these, “Beyond the Nutcracker," uses the traditional music and format of the “Nutcracker" but tells an original Christmas story. The performances make professional quality dance performance accessible to our local communities in the south suburbs of Chicago, where no other professional dance companies perform. The School shared performances with 2,100 audience members in 2016.
The Ballet 5:8 company employs 12 professional artists who work full-time rehearsing, performing and teaching throughout the year. In the 2016/17 season, the company performed 24 times in the Chicago area and across seven states. Over the previous five years, we have been able to showcase 81 performances in Illinois and across nine states and engage over 6,000 audience members in grace-filled conversations of life and faith through innovative storytelling, breathtaking dance, and post-performance discussion. In addition to performing, the company brings talented professional artists to the School of the Arts as instructors who would not otherwise be available in the South Chicago suburbs.
We define ourselves as a Christian ballet company, and because of our faith, we want to help our students and company artists thrive spiritually, mentally, and emotionally. Students are not required to share our faith, but they are encouraged to participate in practical areas of the Ballet 5:8 culture, such as in supporting and encouraging their classmates, rather than undercutting them. Each Ballet 5:8 performance contains ballets inspired by stories from great literature, poems, and current cultural issues, framed and explored from a faith-based perspective. to consider the topics depicted from their own perspective. The Ballet 5:8 TalkBack invites audience members to engage in conversation with the choreographers and dancers, asking questions about the work. Our heart is to inspire conversation like a ripple caused by a pebble dropped in a pool, with the performance and TalkBack being just the first wave of many conversations.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
As a multifaceted dance education center, Ballet 5:8 operates with several different goals that pertain to various individual programs. One goal that exists throughout all of the School's programs is to maintain an atmosphere and culture that allows students to learn, grow, gain inspiration, and thrive both physically and emotionally. Ensuring that students learn and grow involves continually maintaining and implementing our extensive school-wide syllabus. The syllabus developed by a combination of time-tested dance training techniques, the latest research, and innovation from education psychology fields. The syllabus equips instructors to teach concepts, steps, and positions in a manner that is consistent across each classroom. It takes students step by step through the building blocks of dance training in sequence and at an appropriate pace for students' age, maturity, physical capacity, and prior training. In the professional company, Ballet 5:8's Artistic Director, Julianna Rubio Slager, uses a contemporary take on the art form of classical ballet to bring the beauty and power of the art form into the 21st century. Slager's works inspire audiences to a grace-filled conversation of life and faith. This fall, Slager's newest creation, Compass, debuted with performances in Moline, IL, Grand Rapids, MI, and Chicago. Slager created the program with the intent to challenge audiences to view current events and cultural tensions with the perspective of our “inner compass" set on compassion. The performance was made up of four one-act ballets that touch on different aspects of culture. The ballets explore racial tension, modern-day Psalms, hardship, regret, immigration, and heritage. Audience members then participated in panel discussions with Slager and company artists post-performance.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
Ballet 5:8, founded as a publicly supported nonprofit organization by Julianna Rubio Slager and Amy Kozol Sanderson in 2012. Starting out with six dancers - three professional artists, two apprentices, and a trainee - the company spent its first season performing wherever there was an opportunity, in venues all over the city and suburbs.
Today, Ballet 5:8 has a growing roster of professional dancers and an expanding repertoire of original, innovative works created by Slager and other contemporary creatives. The company shares the beauty, power, and inspiration of professional dance with thousands of audience members each season across Chicago, the Midwest, and the nation through up to 40 performances in settings ranging from professional theaters to school gyms.
Ballet 5:8's multifaceted dance education center, Ballet 5:8 School of the Arts, extends the company's mission to over 250 students each year at campuses in Frankfort, IL, Chicago (Beverly), and Valparaiso, IN. The school includes a nationally-recognized classical ballet training program, a range of recreational dance classes for all ages and levels of ability, and a uniquely nurturing environment where students thrive. Ballet 5:8 is passionate about training and equipping the artists of tomorrow and investing in local communities through accessible, high-quality dance education.
How we listen
Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.
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How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
To identify and remedy poor client service experiences, To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, To make fundamental changes to our programs and/or operations, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To identify where we are less inclusive or equitable across demographic groups, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve
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Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
We collect feedback from the people we serve at least annually, We take steps to get feedback from marginalized or under-represented people, We aim to collect feedback from as many people we serve as possible, We take steps to ensure people feel comfortable being honest with us, We act on the feedback we receive, We share the feedback we received with the people we serve, We tell the people who gave us feedback how we acted on their feedback
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What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
It is difficult to get the people we serve to respond to requests for feedback
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
BALLET FIVE EIGHT NFP
Board of directorsas of 02/10/2024
Cynthia Newland
Caitlin Wuethrich
Caitlin Wuethrich Media
Mia Kay
Colorado Ballet Society
Lawrence M. Jackson
George Mason University
Dr. Scott A. Jones
Peak Health and Performance
Ashley Hanson
Neuro Developmental Training System
Kason Hanson
Neuro Developmental Training System
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? No -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? Not applicable
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
The organization's co-leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
Gender identity
Transgender Identity
Sexual orientation
No data