Ballet Review: Dracula

On November 3 I had the very real pleasure of attending The Washington Ballet's production of "Dracula."  As a fan of both ballet and the original source, I had high expectations, but higher still were the expectations of the two "ballet virgins" who accompanied me.

The ballet is atmospheric and enthralling.  while the company's production of "Alice in Wonderland" fell flat due to awkward aerial equipment changes and hoaxes effects, "Dracula," is just lavish enough to keep with the tradition of depictions of Stoker's novel.  The dancers were well-cast, and Hyun-Woong Kim as Dracula was simply spell-binding. 

Lucy and Dracula, dancing passionately to her death.


As a whole, the production was not always well-paced; there were overly-long scenes that seemed placed just to emphasize the ballet in an otherwise very theatrical production.  The lowest point in the ballet was actually the conclusion, at which point a horde of undead craws from the scenery to dance in celebration of Dracula's acquisition of Mina.  The dancers looked like they were ready for, as I thought in the moment, a Hot Topic Prom, and I expected them to break out into "Thriller" at any moment.  In an otherwise carefully costumed and directed production, this dance was simply hokey. 


However, this weak scene can be forgiven for the beauty that came before: an amazing pas de deux between Dracula and Harker at Dracula's castle.  Well-choreographed, phenomenally preformed, and perfectly breathtaking, the feats of strength and grace presented by the dancers took away our collective breath.  It was a perfect struggle between the two, capturing both the energy of the medium and the characterization presented in the primary source. 
The pas de dux of Dracula and Harker. 
Here you can see a preview of the ballet, and here you can see a great dress rehearsal video.

117. Stoker, Bram. Dracula. 327 pages. 10.3.09.

Introducing one of English literature’s most infamous characters, Bram Stoker’s Dracula is a feast of a novel that delights both those with a taste for horror, and those without. While modern readers will recognize much of the Count that they have come to know through popular culture, the original novel holds much more than suave aristocrats and women in negligees.

The epistolary form of the novel – which comes into vogue in the 18th-century – allows Stoker to create a sense of suspense and complexity as he navigates several different narratives that prove essential to the successful relation of his vampire story. Although modern films have simplified the narrative to fit their own format, Dracula would not be the novel it is without the myriad of voices that Stoker utilizes to establish his story, and would certainly lose much of its power and seduction if left to a singular narrator.

When reading Dracula for analysis (as oppose to personal pleasure) it is important to remember that Stoker's work is actually a fairly late addition to the evolving body of English vampire literature. Authors such as Keats, Coleridge, Byron, Polidori, and Le Fanu all raise their voices to contribute to the emerging rendition of an ancient figure, and have their influence in Stoker's creation of his iconic Count. What Stoker does is not create the vampire myth - nor the English vampire story - but rather uses it to very 19th-century English ends.

In the wide scope of Gothic monsters, the vampire is one of the more recent members. While witches haunt medieval manuscripts and werewolves stalk Renaissance dramas, the vampire does not appear in English literature until relatively late.* Stoker himself is responsible for many characteristics that have now become standard for the modern vampire figure, and contemporary authors and artists owe much to Stoker’s conception. What I find most interesting, however, is how Stoker himself manipulates the standards of his time to give life to the character that has so permeated public consciousness. Dracula moves beyond the traditions of horror and Gothic and becomes a piece of social commentary and exploration that contains radical examinations of gender, sexuality, and reproduction. Under the guise of Gothic, Stoker is allowed the freedom to challenge traditional roles established by Victorian society, and pushes against traditional institutions under the cloak of "horror".

Dracula has earned its place in the English canon, and remains an important and influential work of literature that is sure to delight readers for centuries to come.


*According to Montague Summers, demonic creatures that possess certain characteristics attributed to vampires by modern audiences can in fact be found in manuscripts as early as the 14th century, but these distinctions and identifications are all made several centuries after their original composition.




118. Gaiman, Neil. The Graveyard book. 307 pages. 10.3.09.
A sweet ghost story that delivers on all of its promises.