Elegance and danger at the ballet: Dracula prowls the stage

Ballet is a challenging art form, a mix of athleticism, acting and pure dancing ability as performers become instruments for a choreographer’s vision.

It’s even harder in a cape. That’s what Reed Souther, a dancer with Eugene Ballet for 16 seasons, has discovered throughout rehearsals for “Dracula,” as choreographer and associate artistic director Suzanne Haag prepares for the curtains to go up on Victorian England.

“Dracula” is the first full-length ballet from Haag, who stepped in to lead the ballet alongside artistic director Jennifer Martin this season. Haag and Martin succeeded artistic director Toni Pimble, two heirs apparent who were preparing for years to take Pimble’s role at the head of the ballet’s creative side.

For Haag, who has been developing “Dracula” for more than two years, rehearsals meant inviting the company dancers to make the characters their own, in the context of a famous story.

“I’m just so impressed at how the artists have really taken huge strides to develop their characters, to use their own instincts and infuse them into the roles I’ve given them,” she said.

Teaming up to tackle ‘Dracula’

“Dracula” was originally going to open Eugene Ballet’s 2024-25 season, but it was postponed so that season could instead be a celebration of Pimble’s time with the company.

Choreographing the ballet meant reflecting on more than a century of “Dracula” and the material it inspired, including both the 1922 and 2024 film versions of “Nosferatu.” Haag said she’s always had a list of stories she wanted to tackle in choreography, with “Dracula” at the top.

While it closely follows much of the plot of Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel, Haag’s “Dracula,” she said, is more thematically focused on the collective struggle against an evil force, typified by the resistance of the characters Jonathan Harker and his fiancee Mina Murray, along with other community members.

Haag has also added a new group of characters, Blood, with red costumes suggesting skeletal and circulatory systems who surround the named characters to represent the connections between them.

Her “Dracula” takes place against a largely gray-scale backdrop, to mimic the look of a black-and-white film, like F.W. Murnau’s 1922 “Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror.” To stand out against the backdrop, the major characters have assigned colors, like Jonathan and Mina’s shared teal. Projected video will suggest the castle corridors characters traverse.

But unlike a film adaptation, the ballet “Dracula” required Haag to transmute each of the story’s plot beats into dance sequences.

Pas de deux double as vampire battles. Dracula’s imprisoned and enthralled servant Renfield, played by Koki Yamaguchi, is all rapid, jerky movements between bouts of euphoric frolicking (and rat-eating).

And when Dracula transforms the young Lucy Westenra into a vampire, her solo dance at the top of act two — performed by Sarah Kosterman — shows her embracing her new powers through a mix of graceful movement and pure animalistic impulse.

Haag said that as a choreographer, she was always editing her work based on rehearsals. Lucy’s solo didn’t initially have set steps, but rather came from a general feel and conversation with Kosterman that was refined as the weeks went on. 

“This ballet has been really evolving, even from the very first rehearsals,” Haag said. “I’ve kept pretty true to what I envision in my head, but I think we are always adjusting together.”

Becoming the count

Souther said Dracula has been a dream role for him for years. He grew up in Corvallis and saw the company’s previous “Dracula,” choreographed by Charles Bennett for the 2008-09 season, shortly before he joined the company.

He was delighted to get the chance to lead Haag’s “Dracula,” as he’s a self-described “vampire nerd.” He read “Twilight” books as a 2000s teenager who wanted to know what all the girls in his class loved — but found he enjoyed the series as a guilty pleasure. That evolved into more mature vampire fare, watching “True Blood” and Robert Eggers’ 2024 “Nosferatu” with his girlfriend.

Eggers’ “Nosferatu” was a key reference point for Souther’s Dracula. That vampire, Count Orlok as played by Bill Skarsgård, hid an emaciated form underneath a large cloak as he stalked around.

In the first act of Haag’s “Dracula,” Souther is wearing the heaviest cloak of the three he dons throughout the performance. At this point in the story, a weaker, hunched Dracula has yet to feed and restore himself to full power, a physicality that Souther lifted from Skarsgård’s Orlok and worked on with Haag. Once he is restored to full strength, Souther’s Dracula is an elegant, commanding force. 

“At the beginning of rehearsal, Suzi (Haag) said she wants him to be old and decrepit, but also powerful,” Souther said. “That’s a tricky balance to strike.”

Even small details help convey that balance: For example, Haag was very intentional with a suitcase prop: after dancer Joshua Downard, as Harker, struggles to lift it, Souther picks it up easily.

For Souther, who danced with Haag for 13 seasons before she stepped into company management, working with her on the “Dracula” premiere has been an honor.

“It’s a huge deal to me personally, that this is Suzi’s first full-length ballet,” he said. “To be featured in it is extremely important to me,” he said. “I feel very, very privileged that she would have me in this role.”

How to see Eugene Ballet’s ‘Dracula’

There will be two performances of Eugene Ballet’s “Dracula”: Saturday, Nov. 1 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, Nov. 2 at 2 p.m., in the Hult Center’s Silva Concert Hall. 

Tickets for both performances start at $30.