Bite into love: Festival Ballet Albuquerque brings Bram Stoker classic ‘Dracula’ to life

Festival Ballet Albuquerque is taking a bite out of “Dracula,” bringing the story to life through an original production.

The classic novel by Bram Stoker was turned into “Dracula, A Love Story” by artistic director and choreographer Patricia Dickinson.

“I ended up listening to, I believe, close to 130 CDs,” Dickinson said, “and it was one of those things that I wasn’t sure what I wanted musically, but when I heard it, I knew exactly that that was it.”

Lora Sturm, who plays both the Princess and Mina, said bringing a piece from the page to a visual medium such as ballet is challenging, but factors like costuming, set, acting and, of course, music make it easier.

“For me, a lot of dance is really basically living the music, portraying that through movement as well,” Sturm said, “and so it’s like this combination of all those factors.”

Dominic Guerra, who plays Prince Vladimir/Dracula, said the show is a wonderful challenge and he chooses to focus more on the theatrics than on the technical aspects.

“I take it very seriously, because not everybody knows about dance, right?” Guerra said. “But people can be moved by emotion.”

He uses body and facial expression to convey Dracula’s emotions.

“It should be beautiful,” Guerra said.

He has played Dracula in the show before and said he knew he was doing it right when he heard that a child in the audience went from being scared of Dracula to hoping he would not be killed at the end.

He said this showed to him that he was portraying the character on a human level.

Sturm had the challenge of playing two different characters in the production and worked on portraying them differently while still maintaining the thread that ties them together.

She plays Dracula’s lost love, his Princess, in the 1400s, and her reincarnation, Mina, whom he finds in 1800s England.

“It is a challenge, because, obviously, I look the same,” Sturm said. “Like trying to figure out how to give a different flavor while still trying to hold on to both.”

Sturm said when the audience first sees the Princess, the moment is angsty because her prince is going off to war.

“When you first meet Mina, she’s just more sweet and demure and a little bubbly with her friend,” Sturm said.

The time jump is demonstrated through the set and costume changes, Dickinson said.

“We stayed pretty true to the periods,” Dickinson said. The 1400s portion of the ballet is set in a Transylvanian castle.

“The latter part is when (Dracula) comes to England in the late 1800s and so we’re pretty true to that period as well.”

The costuming, while staying period-accurate, is not without its theatrics and includes a scene in which Dracula flies with a 24-by-16-foot cape.

“It feels very powerful ...,” Guerra said. “It’s great, because the choreography is such (that) everybody’s reaching for you. So you feel like, ‘Yes, this is my kingdom. I’m in control.’”

To make the story clearer, since the ballet is without dialogue, Dickinson said a page in the program covers the historical story of Dracula.

The dancers, Sturm said, discuss scenes together beforehand to figure out how to shape them. She said she works with her partners like Guerra and Louie Giannini, who plays Jonathan Harker, Mina’s fiancé, to find the best portrayal.

“Instead of a dialogue, we create more of the energy, I guess of what the scene is portraying,” Sturm said.

“We talk things out like, well, why are we doing this here, or what’s our motivation in this particular movement,” Sturm said.

Elizabeth Secor is an arts fellow from the New Mexico Local News Fellowship program. You can reach her at esecor@abqjournal.com.