I feel I need to rave a little about the Oregon Ballet Theatre’s production of Dracula, which I attended last night.*
First off, I did not think I was a fan of dance – ballet, specifically. I was never able to learn how to do it (ask multiple highly frustrated dance teachers at AMDA) – except the Polka, which I assume is just genetically encoded in my DNA – as I am entirely uncoordinated. I used to joke that I had “dyslexia of the body”, until I found out that was a real thing that existed, called Dyspraxia, and I was probably being an insensitive jackass for co-opting the term to excuse my complete lack of kinesthetic awareness. Being something that I really wanted to be able to do, but couldn’t, made me pretty apathetic about things like sports and dance in general.
As far as what I knew about ballet specifically, it was pretty much down to the “white” ballets, and The Nutcracker. Mostly, it was all a bunch of physically identical skinny (ballerina) or muscular (balletomane) young people performing in unison, solo, or a deux, leaping and twirling, twirling towards freedom, on their very tippy-toes (girls only). I enjoy The Nutcracker because a.) nostalgia, and b.) the “story”, such as it is, is batshit, and you know I enjoy that in a narrative. Mostly, I just don’t care.
Who decided women needed to balance on their toe-knuckles? Doesn’t the sort of grace required of the girls – and the power required of the boys – just reinforce boring 19th century gender stereotypes? Why are there elderly characters that always have to be played by 21 year olds? How long can you even do this before you’ve ruined your joints forever? Is it me, or has dance belt technology advanced a lot since the days of the giant codpiece? Do any of these women even have enough body fat to have periods?
Basically, I didn’t care for any of the stories they were telling, the dance seemed to interrupt or overwhelm the existing narrative (which I wasn’t interested in anyway), and I’d get distracted. Ooh look – pretty people dancing pretty! Gosh, there are a lot of skinny white ladies around here… That was not so for Dracula. Well, except the skinny white ladies, of course. The Prima Ballerina was Asian-American, so good on OBT I guess.
But! THIS ballet had a LOT of acting in it! I learned later that much of the choreography wasn’t “classical”, because the intention was that it be less about pretty dancing than about the story. The form was the traditional three-act ballet structure, and the story was very loosely based on Stoker’s novel, in which they excised all the English characters and Van Helsing, and just pretty much made it about Dracula, his brides, Renfield, some villagers and a pair of young lovers. All of it took place in Transylvania. The entire first act was like a silent film. The dancing and acting really set the mood. I knew exactly what was happening, and was perfectly drawn into the story. There was a very sexy pas de deux, as well as a pas de trois – also sexy. And a fantastic cape. Plus did I mention the flying? There was wire work in this ballet, and I think in the future I would like to see more flying ballerinas.
The second act was slightly less interesting to me, because it was the most traditional. What I liked – the group dance numbers, based on central european folk dances, and the narrative bits where the Romantic Lead (Frederick) is asking his beloved’s parents for her hand in marriage. What I did not like: extremely traditional pas de deux. I don’t know much about dance, let alone ballet. I would be hard pressed to pick a lady out of the corps and say she was better or worse than the Prima Ballerina. They all danced very well. Everyone faced the correct direction at the right time, no one fell on her ass. You know the drill. So what my untrained eye sees during a traditional pas de deux was a man twirling a lady around, and sometimes she jumps up and he catches her, and sometimes he lifts her above his head and she poses gracefully, blahbitty blah blah. It stopped the story. Here’s five minutes of dancing pretty. And they did partner beautifully, so much so that I was shocked that Frederick was on loan from a completely different company after the original Frederick became unable to perform. But again – to my untrained eye, it’s the same pas de deux I’ve seen in other ballets. The rest of the choreography felt unique. That part just bored me.
But… I’m going to admit to something I haven’t said aloud much, let alone committed to print. I, an Vry Srs Singer (or at least, I have in my lifetime occasionally aspired to be such) do not much care for Opera. I really don’t. First off, because most of the subject matter is irrelevant to me. I don’t care for these stories – so many about women, written by men who never understood or even liked us. And also, talk about stopping the narrative just for the leads to show off. Forty repetitions of “I’m dying! O, I die! Death!!!” and then 16 measures of a soprano singing every high note she has… bored now. Also, I don’t care for the coloratura soprano voice. Sorry. Bitter contralto. But also, with the exception of the demented squeak-toy stylings of Der Holle Rache, I don’t need to hear it. Stops the story, beggars belief, and assaults the ears. I will cop to enjoying two operas, both by Mozart: Don Giovanni (fuckboy gets what’s coming to him) and The Magic Flute, which… well, I have yet to read a plot synopsis that makes any goddamn sense whatsoever, so go ahead and put it in the “batshit” category of media I love.
So anyway, after the digression (both Act II of Dracula, and my previous paragraph) Act III is back in Dracula’s castle, and the Brides are doing all kinds of weird dancing, and the staging is gorgeous, and there’s a fantastic solo by Renfield, and I thought how often do these classically trained dancers get to lurch around ghoulishly, and not smile all pretty and look like soft virginal tippy-toed sylphs? How often does a dancer get to land his grand jete’s in a crouch and then pretend to eat a bug? Probably never! Of course the good guys come in and save the day, and all that business, and by the time the curtain came down I realized that I had been absolutely mesmerized by dance. That the performance had been transcendent, and that I wanted to see it again (too bad, closing night). The choreographer, direction, costume design (lord but it was gorgeous), production design, and the dancers had conspired to make me, a ballet skeptic, into, if not a fan, definitely someone dance-curious.
But I missed one of the most magical things about this production: the music. I really appreciate that OBT has gone out of their way to keep live music in the ballet. Of course there was no music written specifically for Dracula, like there had been for Swan Lake or Giselle. An expert arranger had compiled several of the works of mid-nineteenth century Hungarian composer Franz Liszt. It was gorgeous music, well chosen for the subject. We had seats in the third row and were able to watch the dancers and conductor cue each other, which could not be done with a recording. It’s thrilling to hear live music again, although I felt a bit bad for the orchestra, who were essentially performing a 90-minute concert as an invisible ensemble. Bravo to them as well!
So anyway, if you’re on the fence about a particular kind of art, do yourself a favor and go see it in person. And if they’re doing an “explainer” – a presentation before or after the performance which gives greater context for experienced listeners/viewers, as well as great basic information for newbies, try and see that as well. You never know what you will enjoy until you try it. And last – support the performing arts. There is something magical in the theatre or the concert hall that you will not find anywhere else. If you have the opportunity, go remind yourself what it means to be human.
* here’s a great article on the production I saw if you’d like to read more: https://www.orartswatch.org/oregon-ballet-theatre-sinks-its-teeth-into-dracula/
nerdycellist 