Dracula is a stunning and gloriously spectacular new ballet from Australian company BIG Live.
The show has premiered in Sydney a month ago, and we are at the opening night of its New Zealand season at this country’s most baroque iconic theatre venue, the Civic Theatre.
We start with a gloomy darkened stage. The lighting is deliberately dimmed with subdued red lighting as we eventually pick out the lone figure of warrior Prince Vlad of Transylvania.
As he establishes his regal presence the music begins it’s first surge, with bold and dramatic swordfights from combatants. Both graceful in aerial flight and thrillingly menacing.
Prince Vlad battled the Ottoman empire Turks in the 16th century. More combatants appear and eventually the prince succumbs to the Excalibur-like sword of a demonic, Darth Vader-like presence.
Out of this ritual sacrificing arises the immortal creature Dracula (Ervin Zagadullin, Mariinsky Theatre Company). Signalled by the unfurling of his batwings.
This production of Dracula then begins with one of the historic antecedents of Bram Stoker’s original classic novel published in 1897.
The original story unfolds as a series of flashbacks from letters written by more than one observer, giving it multiple narrators.
It is a major triumph that that the choreography and design of this production by co-founder of BIG Live Joel Burke manages to convey this narrative in such a seamless way. Without any narration of dialogue, except for the story which flows from the dancers themselves.
We then cut to the introduction of the two protagonists, Jonathan Harker (Joel Burke) and his fiancé Wilhemina Mina Murray (Abbey Hansen, principal dancer BIG Live).
Accompanied by the music of wedding marches, the mood is lifted instantly into the joyous occasion of young lovers and their supporting retinue of the Corps de Ballet, featuring an alumni cast from the Mariinsky Theatre, English National Ballet, Queensland Ballet, Australian Ballet, Stuttgart Ballet and more.
Both Burke and Hansen we have seen about a month prior with BIG Live’s Gala Night, when they included one of the pas de deux sequences. Tonight, it comes to life in thrilling fashion in the context of the full production.
Costumes are three-piece suits for the men and flowing Victorian dresses for the women
The stage widens and the full impact of the dark and gothic atmosphere invests the show as we are in the gloomy castle of Dracula’s Transylvanian lair with a set design by Eric Luchen. We shift slowly and inexorably to dread and horror.
One of the defining moments of the show is the introduction of the four witch spirits, or vampire consorts.
Dressed in white spectral outfits, pale in appearance with the air of decay, they dance and move in a bardo existence. Perfect as Succubae and seductive slave consorts to Dracula, are Giselle Osborn, Rose Maloney, Mia Zarnado and Bella Collishaw.
Take as a starting point the dancers which appear on the legendary video of Micheal Jackson’s Thriller. Mix it with contemporary ballet movement which elevates the macabre to a level of sophisticated beauty and sensuality, and you have the biggest triumph of the production.
The Count does want to possess both Mina and Jonathan.
He heralds his appearance initially with the wings. The show elevates in tension as the three trade off dance duels and combine seduction with enslavement.
The transformation of Mina to her capture and enslavement is beautifully crafted by her dance movement conveying resignation matched to the spectacular aerial work of Dracula and Jonathan, who both appear as doppelgangers of each other.
The vampire legend may be older than Bram Stoker’s novel, but he defined its modern-day legend. The seductive mix of sexuality, supernatural mythology and horror.
Trace the development from F.W. Murnau’s classic and most artistic Nosferatu, to the movies starring Bela Lugosi and Christopher Lee.
The only part of the narrative left out was the demise of the Dracula.
Fast paced and economical in pacing, with the 1812 Overture of Tchaikovsky building to a crescendo finale, it is a magnificent triumph that this version of the Dracula invests so much power from the original source.
Rev. Orange Peel
Photos by Craig Ratcliffe