Ballet 5:8 reimagines ‘La Llorona’ as story of hope at the Hemmens

This Halloween, Ballet 5:8 brings “La Llorona” to the Hemmens Cultural Center for a hauntingly beautiful afternoon of dance, storytelling, and family festivities.

Inspired by one of Latin America’s most enduring legends, this original ballet looks beyond the familiar ghost story to find Maria — the woman inside the myth.

Overwhelmed by exhaustion, isolation, and postpartum depression, Maria begins to disappear inside her illness. As fear and grief distort her reality, family, faith, and community become lifelines pulling her toward hope.

Through powerful choreography, theatrical storytelling, and a cinematic score infused with Mexican folk colors and live trumpet improvisation, “La Llorona” transforms a story rooted in fear into a deeply human portrait of maternal mental health, compassion, and restoration.

This is not a horror story. Although the production explores serious emotional themes, it does so with tenderness, beauty, and hope rather than graphic imagery. Families and intergenerational audiences are welcome.

Come in costume and enjoy family trick-or-treating as part of this special Halloween performance.

Ballet 5:8 will perform “La Llorona” at 2 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 31, on the Hemmens main stage, 45 Symphony Way, Elgin. Tickets are $45-$50. For tickets, visit hemmens.org.