Pennsylvania Ballet.

PENNSYLVANIA BALLET ACADEMY OF MUSIC PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA OCTOBER 30-NOVEMBER 8, 2003

I left the Pennsylvania Ballet's performance of Dracula thinking, "What an amazing company this is!" After changes in artistic leadership, bankruptcy, and near extinction in the 1990s, it has emerged victoriously alive and kicking in the new millennium, with Roy Kaiser at the helm. This is the company's fortieth anniversary season, and they are by no means middle aged. The PA Ballet repertoire ranges across the ballet spectrum from nineteenth-century classics to contemporary pieces by Dwight Rhoden, David Parsons, and Trey McIntyre. The dancers' command of Balanchine's works should bring enthusiasts flocking to Philadelphia to see them strut their stuff during the centennial year.

So, why Dracula? Well, it was the Halloween season and, like The Nutcracker for Christmas, holiday programming is a surefire crowd pleaser. I attended a Saturday matinee performance. Kids (mainly girls) of all ethnicities brought their parents, attesting to the success of Kaiser's outreach, education, and marketing efforts. Ghoulish regalia was on sale in the lobby, and some youngsters came dressed in capes and long, web-sleeved dresses. The audience was in the mood, and they were given a spectacle that lived up to expectations. According to one PA Ballet dancer, "Tire whole thing feels like a Broadway show"--and it looked that way, too.

This full-length ballet is one of the largest productions ever mounted by Pennsylvania Ballet. Choreographed by Ben Stevenson to music by Franz Liszt and arranged by John Lanchbery, it features a full-blown, haunting set--Count Dracula's castle--a much-discussed thirty-pound cape worn by the Count, and several flying sequences for Dracula and two of his eighteen bewigged, gowned brides. Choreographed in 1997 to mark the hundredth anniversary of Bram Stoker's spooky tale, it adheres to traditional conventions for evening length ballets, even down to the mandatory happy village scene. I wondered why a nineteenth-century ballet was choreographed a few years ago. The opportunity to give a new bottle to an old wine was ignored.

I saw the first cast, led by Edward Cieslak as a rather tentative anti-hero (there were three rotating casts). Particularly noteworthy were Philip Colucci as Renfield, Dracula's mad henchman, and Alexei Charov and Natalia Charova as villagers in Act II.

Dracula, in its many versions has become an annual October audience builder for many companies.