Ballet Dracula
Festival Theatre, 12/6/26
Ballet International Gala Live, Artistic Director and Choreographer Joel Burke
Bram Stoker’s 1897 Gothic horror novel has spawned countless adaptations for film, TV series, plays, musicals, operas, and several ballets. The latest ballet adaptation of Dracula comes from BIG [Ballet International Gala] Live, an ambitious Australian touring company founded in 2019. Several tweaks to Stoker’s original tale included: a Dracula origin story; Jonathan Harker turning into a somewhat anaemic vampire; and Mina Harker transforming from a helpless puppet into the protagonist and, ultimately, the hero of the story.
The classical choreography featured plenty of showy leaps, lifting, and pirouettes in set pieces such as an abbreviated battle scene and Mina and Jonathan’s idyllic wedding. These scenes moved the story along to Dracula’s castle, where the hapless newlyweds are honeymooning. Perhaps they should have read the Tripadvisor reviews beforehand.
Stoker’s three Brides of Dracula are here transformed into four Ghosts, sexy vamps like living marble statues with flowing white hair and drapery. As Dracula’s sidekicks their dances with Mina and Jonathan give the phrase corps de ballet a whole new meaning. The Ghosts, despite being in thrall to Dracula, have agency, and intervene to protect Mina from their Dark Lord.
In Act I, everything is black and white (and red). In Act II we begin to discern some shade. Mina’s eloquent pas de deux with Dracula is more passionate than her earlier dances with Jonathan. It seems everyone loves a bad boy.
In the big finale Mina, after taking care of Jonathan (holy water) and Dracula (stake), kills herself (stake) in a stunning display of Ghoul Power. I lost track of the body count, especially since several of the characters died more than once.
The official programme was stylish, glossy black paper with white printing, but proved rather difficult to read, and only identified the dancers portraying Dracula and Mina by name (Ervin Zagidullan and Abbey Hansen).
The (recorded) music was a patchwork of the creepy classical repertoire, including Mussorgsky’s Night on the Bare Mountain, Saint-Saëns’ Danse Macabre, and Bach’s Toccata and Fugue, but none of the composers was credited in the programme. Appropriately menacing Gothic sets were designed by Martin Thomas and the costume design was by Sophia Dracos and Fiona Holley. The atmospheric lighting by Steven May used shadows and blood red spotlights to great effect, but the gloom and darkness meant that some of the dancers’ intricate footwork was not easy to see.
This was BIG Live’s first visit to Edinburgh, and judging by the rapturous reception from the first night’s near capacity audience, it won’t be the last. This BIG, bold Dracula was a toothsome delight.
Photo credit: BIG Live
