Gothic horror has a powerful appeal enabling the exploration of forbidden desires and repressions and within the genre, few names are more potent and chilling than Dracula. Since Bram Stoker published his novel in 1897, the story has been retold in many mediums, including film and dance. Choreographer, Krzysztof Pastor, found little inspiration in the image of a blood sucking monster but the original tale, told predominantly through journal extracts, letters and reports fired his imagination while leaving him room for manoeuvre. He then adapted the plot to introduce a persuasive love story.
The resulting narrative ballet Dracula, restaged for the Finnish National Ballet, has graveyards and gloomy castles alternating with waltzing couples in Victorian drawing rooms. In this collision of fantasy and reality the dancers have a broad canvas on which to display their talents while sets and costumes created by Charles Cusick Smith and Phil R. Daniels show awesome attention to detail.
Pastor also found inspiration in Wojciech Kilar’s film score for the 2022 version directed by Francis Ford Coppola. Kilar’s music provides powerful support especially in the moments of heightened drama: the opening battle, Jonathan’s meeting with the vampires and Lucy’s transformation, but struggles to match the extraordinary, atypical love interest. The waltzes for the parties in London were demure and a little sentimental, in keeping with the melodrama.
Pastor introduces his plot line with a well-staged prologue, as the valiant Count Dracula fights the enemy amidst the clash of swords and swirling cloaks. His young wife, Elisabeta, receives rumours of his death from the clergy and throws herself from the battlements in despair. However, the Count returns, his agony compounded when he finds the church will not bury his beloved wife because of her suicide. He renounces God and in a macabre moment he crawls between the two phantom figures to become one of the undead.
Mina, Jonathan Harker’s fiancée, bears a striking similarity to Elisabeta. Her encounter with Dracula brings understanding of his pain and changes her loathing to love. She finds the courage to honour his request and kill him, releasing him from eternal damnation and bringing redemptive love to the gruesome death.
The Finnish National Ballet has a strong corps of dancers and a fine stock of actor/ dancers, to fill the numerous roles. Count Dracula, constantly rejuvenated by fresh blood, had two interpreters, Michal Krčmář, as the younger man, still with a shred of idealism, and Sergei Popov as the gnarled and evil ancient vampire. Each brought commanding presence to the character and their changeovers were expertly resolved, aided by voluminous cloaks and intelligent lighting.
There are two lead female roles, Mina, danced by Zhiyao Chen, and Lucy, danced by Abigail Sheppard. Both have dangerous encounters with Count Dracula but only Sheppard joins the vampires giving her the opportunity to portray both the demure English lady and a wild demonic creature. Her transformation was terrifying as she becomes consumed by wild energy before being put to rest with a stake through her heart. Mina and Jonathan, (Jun Xia), have a series of eloquent pas de deux. The first is one of apprehension as Jonathan prepares to travel to Transylvania. Sweeping lifts and heartfelt longing are sincerely felt and Chen, left alone, expresses her sorrow in a solo that reaches out to her departed love. Lucy comes to comfort her in an atmosphere of warmth and romance.
The scene changes dramatically with Jonathan’s arrival at the castle. A fellow passenger’s concern increases his nervousness, and it is she who rescues him in his hour of need. The castle has all the right accoutrements of shrouded figures, heavy furniture and a vault of coffins. There is a cursory business transaction before Krčmář engages Xia in a weird and sinister tango at the vampire party. Later Xia is assailed by groping hands and teeth ready to bite during a troubled night. It is only the woman traveller looking for her abducted baby who ventures in with a crucifix who enables his dramatic escape.
With Dracula’s arrival in England, the supernatural enters the real world. Popov, suppurating evil, is able to enter the asylum. Lucy is seduced in the drawing rooms as the whirling dancers freeze and lights dim. Her fresh blood transforms Popov to Krčmář, young and charming. He approaches Mina who evades him but she is left deeply troubled as the drama rises to its climax.
Renfield, the psychiatric patient who so potently senses the presence of evil, is one of the most exciting roles in the ballet. Atte Kilpinen brings depth of pathos to this misunderstood tortured creature and Pastor gives some of his most formidable choreography. The scenes in the asylum, replete with heavily barred windows made riveting viewing.
Dracula’s phantoms who make their entrance in the prologue and remain on hand as constant attendants to the Count, also enjoy well-crafted choreography. Guilio Diligente and Jaime Almaraz, two exceptional technicians leapt and turned in synchronised perfection adding to the drama.
There is a great deal of plot to blend into the ballet and this became pantomimic at times. Having the band of vampire slayers, Dr. Seward, Juntaro Coste, the aristocratic Arthur, Alfio Drago and Van Helsing, Samuli Poutanen, stepping out in unison bordered on the comic and razed the tension. Sadly, there is little suitable ballet mime for driving a stake into a vampire heart. However, this is a small gripe in an evening that has so much to offer in both dance and drama.
Maggie's accommodation was funded by Finnish National Ballet