Pack your garlic.
Dracula doesn’t lose his bite, even when he’s dressed in tights.

That’s according to the Eugene Ballet Company, whose performers present the Bram Stoker gothic novel via modern dance this weekend.
As the curtains are drawn audience members are thrust into several different scenes, including Dracula’s Transylvanian castle circa 1897. Restless, the vampire has ravaged his region and thirsts for fresh blood to liberate him from his haggard, humdrum existence.
After conducting a real estate deal with London solicitor Jonathan Harker, Dracula determines to quench his crimson desire elsewhere. Dracula leaves Jonathan to his three vampiress wives, but at the last minute grants him reprieve in his own self-interest.
“There’s nothing like being scared in a sophisticated manner – it’s macabre, but built on romantic ethics,” said Riley Grannan, managing director for the EBC. “There’s a dramatic juxtaposition of characters.”
Dracula feels a romantic attachment toward Lucy, a friend of Jonathan and his fiancé Mina, whom he first encounters in England. He simultaneously suppresses his desire to bite and possess her.
“Dracula is charmingly sinister – not a werewolf,” Grannan said. “He’s more intellectually involved and has a greater connection with being human.”
A chilling tale ensues as Lucy’s family and friends attempt to save her from a vampiress future. Harker’s former professor-mentor Van Helsing aids in the process.
During the two hour and 20-minute production (with two intermissions), an eerie sound track compiled by the late choreographer Charles Bennett keeps audience members chilled at the edges of their seats amid blood-splattering bites. The action theater soundscape overlays various musical components including opera, orchestral music and sound effects. Sudden jolts in the music awaken them from frightful dazes.
“It’s like radio theater,” Grannan said. “You don’t realize you are bonded with what is going on and the choreography is genius.”
Friday and Sunday’s productions include a costume contest component. Attendees of all ages are invited to participate Friday and youth ages 16 and younger may participate Sunday. A $500 prize will be awarded to the winners, who will be determined by the audience’s clapping and rooting.
“They let their fantasies go wild,” Grannan said of audience members.
EBC’s last Dracula production and costume contest was 10 years ago.
Grannan likened the Dracula performance and costume contest to the “Rocky Horror Picture Show” cultural phenomenon. He said Dracula’s themes are attractive to young people who will enjoy the “auditory and visual feast.”
“I’m always in favor of examining our fear of the unknown,” Grannan said. “The theme of the undead and sinister elements keeps returning and is perhaps more real to us than ever. We have blood pathogens, HIV, AIDS, epidemiological things; we tuck our dead away and have a primal fear of their ghosts resurfacing.”
Grannan added that the dancers would keep their molded fangs, and Dracula will keep his personalized fingernails.
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