This past weekend was Halloween, and Pittsburgh and Point Park were both alive with spooky activities such as the Halloween Bash: Ghost of your past from the Campus Activities Board, or just regular trick-or-treating around Pittsburgh.
Last weekend, another large event was also hosted: the Pittsburgh Ballet Theater’s ‘Dracula.’ The production ran from Friday to Sunday with performances at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., all hosted at the Benedum Center for Performing Arts.
Micheal Pink is the choreographer for ‘Dracula;’ the first performance of his rendition was premiered in February 2023. He is also the artistic director for the Milwaukee Ballet.
There were two casts, the cast for the November 1st 2 p.m. performance being different. The regular cast featured the main characters of Colin McCaslin as Dracula, David O’Matz as Harker, Hannah Carter as Mina, and Tommie Lin Kesten as Lucy.
The November 1st performance featured Lucius Kirst as Dracula, Josiah Kauffman as Harker, Grace Rookstool as Mina, and JoAnna Schmidt as Lucy.
The ballet was split into three 37-minute acts with two 20-minute intermissions between them, making the entire performance around two and a half hours.
The first act featured Johnathan Harker embarking on his journey to Transylvania to see Count Dracula. In his journey, he stumbles upon a village enacting a sacrifice to appease Dracula. Harker then continues his journey all the way to Dracula’s castle, where he is welcomed in by Dracula himself. On the first night, Harker is visited by three vampire women, who try and seduce him, but Dracula fends them off. Act One ends with Jonathan waking up with a scream and finding himself in a sanatorium.
Act Two opens with a tea dance at the Grand Hotel. Mina’s friend, Lucy, dances with many suitors. That is, until a storm crashes, throwing open the windows and revealing Dracula. The guests don’t see him, but Lucy does and slowly climbs to him. But Dracula disappears, and Lucy remains dazed. She is then taken to Van Helsing’s clinic, where he sees the bite mark on her neck and covers her in wild garlic. But Dracula returns and kills Lucy, making her a part of the Undead.
In the final act, Dracula kidnaps Mina while she is alone in her room, offering her his blood in return. The men find Lucy’s room empty and go out looking for her to kill Dracula once and for all.
Dracula and Mina go to Carfax Abbey, where they are surrounded by the Undead, to celebrate their union. But a strong beam of light hits Dracula, and the men appear, managing to kill Dracula and save Mina.
The artistry of the choreography, music, and settings put together a story that didn’t need words. The graceful actions of the dancers made the violent scenes almost poetic, as in the original book by Bram Stoker.
The ballet explores themes of romance, unity, sexuality, and evil while simultaneously creating a perfectly balanced piece. This was the perfect performance for any lover of drama and Gothic horror.
