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mishalakNearly two years ago on Halloween morning I got a call at work. Actually one of my co-workers got it because I was getting a cuppa at the time. After I was found I jogged up and found my friend Rose on the phone, "Would you like to go to Dracula?"
After working out that this was the ballet and not a movie I said that it sound like fun, but how much would it cost since I was semi-broke and saving up for many convention in 2003. "Zero. They're giving away tickets right now at my job and that's why I'm calling." "I'm in!"
So that is how I ended up over at the Denver Performing Arts complex on a Thursday night despite the fact that I would be working 10-11 hours the next day. The weather was freezing cold with a strong wind carrying a light but steady fall of snow. This was the third day of such conditions and people were beginning to comment about weird this is for Colorado. Naturally we rushed inside as soon as we could.
The costumes were out in force. Several historical Japanese costumes, a great wolfman, vampires, and a soviet commissar chatted inside. Rose brought a high priced hot cider to support the civic auditorium and I mad snarky comments about the wind tunnel design of the arcade area between the buildings. I'm almost positive I saw an unfortunate nicotine addict being carried by a gust towards Speer Boulevard and Cherry Creek.
The got ten of the costumed guests up on state before the performance as the finalists in the competition. Dracuella (little girl going vampire), the grunge band wolfman, and a Japanese couple won prizes. I thought it very cool that the mundane world was encouraging hall costumes. The lights went low and we plunged into a strange blend of high culture dancing, popular fiction, and spectacle effects (yes I mean spectacle and not special).
From the opening dream sequence to the end of the Count I loved the whole thing. They made use of a whole range of on stage effects, from the gauze screen to create a mist effect with projection to some very impressive looking blood. Dance suited the subjected surprisingly well in most respects. The very orderly dance of the Victorian English as Lucy was courting perfectly fit the mood of that setting.
My favorite was the wild dance of the Transylvanians before the arrival of Mr. Harker. Of course I'm biased towards anything Eastern European so I am not a completely objective critic. I was also quite amused by the homoerotic overtones between Dracula and Harker after the Count got rid of the three vampire brides trying to seduce Harker. Dracula himself looked great, he's Asian, but rather than making him seem an unrealistic Eastern European noble bloodsucker his bone structure under the deathly pale makeup make him seem more strange and unnatural.
The big ending with all the dancers slinking about with blood on their faces was quite a sight. Then the shining in of the light and the triumph of the hunters over Dracula was very well executed. So my review is Dracula is a lot of fun as a ballet and a good show for those of us who are tired of the Nutcracker year after year. Don't expect perfect adherence to the story, after all this a ballet in three acts, not a word for word translation of book to play. Highly recommended.
Oh and Denver has great audiences. We always applaud loudly and enthusiastically for such events. If the players have to take less than three bows it is exceptional. Not at all the polite minute of clapping I've seen on TV at places like the Met. Also there were more than a few whistles and a few rock and roll type war whoops. People from other cities may look down upon us as being loud cowboys but personally I like the unrestrained passion for our cultural players.
Executive Summary: Go to see a performance. I know it is pricey, I swear it is worth it. It plays through November 7th again this year.
After working out that this was the ballet and not a movie I said that it sound like fun, but how much would it cost since I was semi-broke and saving up for many convention in 2003. "Zero. They're giving away tickets right now at my job and that's why I'm calling." "I'm in!"
So that is how I ended up over at the Denver Performing Arts complex on a Thursday night despite the fact that I would be working 10-11 hours the next day. The weather was freezing cold with a strong wind carrying a light but steady fall of snow. This was the third day of such conditions and people were beginning to comment about weird this is for Colorado. Naturally we rushed inside as soon as we could.
The costumes were out in force. Several historical Japanese costumes, a great wolfman, vampires, and a soviet commissar chatted inside. Rose brought a high priced hot cider to support the civic auditorium and I mad snarky comments about the wind tunnel design of the arcade area between the buildings. I'm almost positive I saw an unfortunate nicotine addict being carried by a gust towards Speer Boulevard and Cherry Creek.
The got ten of the costumed guests up on state before the performance as the finalists in the competition. Dracuella (little girl going vampire), the grunge band wolfman, and a Japanese couple won prizes. I thought it very cool that the mundane world was encouraging hall costumes. The lights went low and we plunged into a strange blend of high culture dancing, popular fiction, and spectacle effects (yes I mean spectacle and not special).
From the opening dream sequence to the end of the Count I loved the whole thing. They made use of a whole range of on stage effects, from the gauze screen to create a mist effect with projection to some very impressive looking blood. Dance suited the subjected surprisingly well in most respects. The very orderly dance of the Victorian English as Lucy was courting perfectly fit the mood of that setting.
My favorite was the wild dance of the Transylvanians before the arrival of Mr. Harker. Of course I'm biased towards anything Eastern European so I am not a completely objective critic. I was also quite amused by the homoerotic overtones between Dracula and Harker after the Count got rid of the three vampire brides trying to seduce Harker. Dracula himself looked great, he's Asian, but rather than making him seem an unrealistic Eastern European noble bloodsucker his bone structure under the deathly pale makeup make him seem more strange and unnatural.
The big ending with all the dancers slinking about with blood on their faces was quite a sight. Then the shining in of the light and the triumph of the hunters over Dracula was very well executed. So my review is Dracula is a lot of fun as a ballet and a good show for those of us who are tired of the Nutcracker year after year. Don't expect perfect adherence to the story, after all this a ballet in three acts, not a word for word translation of book to play. Highly recommended.
Oh and Denver has great audiences. We always applaud loudly and enthusiastically for such events. If the players have to take less than three bows it is exceptional. Not at all the polite minute of clapping I've seen on TV at places like the Met. Also there were more than a few whistles and a few rock and roll type war whoops. People from other cities may look down upon us as being loud cowboys but personally I like the unrestrained passion for our cultural players.
Executive Summary: Go to see a performance. I know it is pricey, I swear it is worth it. It plays through November 7th again this year.