#Dracula Ballet

[lauralot89]

why didn't I know there was a Dracula ballet and ESPECIALLY why didn't I know it has this dance with Dracula and Jonathan

#Dracula #Dracula ballet #Dracula and Harker pas de deux #ballet #dance #Jonathan Harker #Youtube

[winter2468]

The Dracula ballet shows the aftermath of Dracula's harm in such a clever way.

After he returns to England, Jonathan needs a cane to walk, and he can't dance. He clearly wants to dance with Mina, but he's too ill, and Van Helsing dances with her instead.

After being fed on by Dracula, Lucy tries to act like she's fine, and tries to dance with Arthur, but she quickly collapses, unable to dance.

Being fed on by Dracula means that the characters can't dance - they can't perform their expected behaviour with in the medium of ballet. It's a really clever way of showing the isolating effects of the trauma brought on by Dracula's abuse.

#this is not a dracula quote #dracula #dracula ballet #jonathan harker #lucy westenra #mina harker #arthur holmwood #van helsing

[thegoatsongs]

The first 5 minutes of the Pink ballet Dracula

It features Jonathan Harker (during his brain fever era) having one of his nightmares. It evolves into him dreaming of his wedding with Mina.

There are "future visions" in Jonathan's nightmare wedding segment. Jonathan's fears manifest (e.g Jonathan being pushed away by Mina back to the Three Sisters) and some are representative of Mina later becoming a vampire (e.g the coffin scenes). At the very end, there's a very brief wedding consummation scene, but no nudity.

#dracula daily #jonathan harker #dracula #mina harker #jonmina #michal pink #dracula ballet

[strange-destinations]

some of my favorite bits from Michael Pink's Dracula ballet. because damn, that vampire sure can dance.

#my art #dracula #dracula ballet #(i won't tag it as dracula daily because there ARE spoilers (for a 126-year-old book))

[awestruck-atrophy]

slowly making my way through all the gothic horror ballets. is there a Jekyll and Hyde ballet. I must know.

#Dracula ballet #Frankenstein ballet #gothic horror #gothic literature #Mary Shelley #ballet #dance #Frankenstein #Dracula #bram stoker

[per1w1nkl3]

in honor of dracula daily I watched the dracula ballet (with the milwaukee company, by micheal pink) and let me tell you it's so good!!! imo it's pretty book accurate, with a few limitations ofc (but they do include jonathan's queer dreams that may or may not be caused by the paprika)

anyway here are a few pictures

and here's the link:

i have a few thoughts but I'm hiding them under the tag in case anyone might want to watch it and go in completely blind. either way do yourselves a favor and go watch it!

i love the cool blue light for the vampires. I think I usually associate them with red so the blue was a nice change

love the brides. love how they usually are en pointe vs most other characters usually aren't. love their clothes

i like all the costumes actually

obsessed with dracula's entrance and him moving his arms like bat wings and just in general him acting very bat-like

LOVE dracula and jonathan's pas de deux. if I could I'd draw them i would.

actually the first act as a whole is so so good

the fact that jonathan walks with a cane is very cool. it would've been so easy to undermine his trauma a little, especially with the fact that it's a ballet. but no, dracula really does look scary and threatening. i just wished they kept it for a little longer.

jonathan being the first to see dracula is also great

the fact that lucy goes en point the moment she sees dracula hdhdhhdh

and tries to play it off like nothing happened :((

van helsing, seward (or is it quincey? he looks a little texan lmao) and arthur dancing over minas deathbed :(((

hello renfield!!

hello renfield dancing with his hands tied!!!!

it was quincey morris omg hii

mina and dracula pas de deux!! everytime the count is on stage is just so cool to watch

are those the people dracula killed?? idk but I love them

the fight. are you kidding me.

#no really i should watch more contemporary ballet #dracula #dracula daily #dracula ballet

[phoenixyfriend]

Sometimes, oxytocin is stored in having a little discord watch party with your friends so you can liveblog the Milwaukee Dracula Ballet at each other.

Anyway, that was a lot of fun and I am very glad to have done it, thank you to all the friends who came 🥰🥰🥰🥰

#dracula #dracula ballet #phoenix talks

[dathen]

OKAY SO another change the Dracula ballet made that I really liked was it shifted the chronology of Jonathan’s attack and Lucy’s death. In the ballet, Jonathan and Lucy meet!! Jonathan is still clearly weak, and walks slowly using a cane, and the men look after him, pulling out a chair for him and taking his coat and it’s very sweet 🥰

The rest of the characters are dancing a lighthearted segment, and Jonathan wanders off to climb a stairway at the back of the stage (relying heavily on the cane and railing—I love how much emphasis there is on him as a disabled character in the ballet) before seeing Dracula above. He falls back from the shock off the staircase, and the other characters (mainly the men!) rush to help and care for him, breaking the cheerful scene.

And then the lights cut off to a dim, haunting blue, leaving Lucy in the spotlight staring up at Dracula staring down at her. But for a moment before that, it was just Jonathan’s world crashing to a halt as the rest of the world continues on in brightness and music and laughter around him.

It’s a brilliant way to compress the timeline and convey the story without dialogue, while *adding* dynamics where others are lost. It gives everyone a moment of joy and peace together before things turn dark again, emphasizing Jonathan’s lasting trauma and leaning into the support and love at the story’s emotional core.

#dracula ballet #dracula daily #jonathan harker #lucy westenra #disabled jonathan RIGHTS #in today’s entry I pictured him holding onto Mina’s arm with one hand and leaning on a cane in the other #I hit pause again after watching these 30 seconds because realized oops it had passed the book again

[olibensstuff]

no, benny, don’t make a Dracula ballet ninja turtle au. Don’t do it benny.

#I’m going to see the ballet tonight #I CANT WAIT #<im very very Crazy over ballets I love watching them #tmnt #tmnt 2012 #probably #ballet #dracula ballet #benny being silly

[creativepup]

Was doing some research and discovered there have actually been several ballet adaptions of Dracula:

Michael Pink's Dracula - this version was developed in 1997 for the book's centennial, and also happens to be the version I'm familiar with (it's great 🦇). Follows a streamlined version of the book plot, Quincey is there, Seward gets combined with Van Helsing. There's a cool bit of choreography in the middle where Dracula goes upside-down climbing some scaffolding.

Krzysztof Pastor's Dracula - based off of Coppola's film Bram Stoker's Dracula (which greatly deviates from the book plot). Mina is a reincarnation (?) of Dracula's long-lost wife from before he became a vampire. Has won multiple performing arts awards.

Ben Stevenson’s Dracula - Set entirely in Transylvania in the 1800s (although Renfield is still there). Vampire brides fly around the stage, and Dracula gets sone epic bat wings.

Gary Taylor's Dracula - like Pastor's version, this is a Dracula/Mina love story from Dracula's POV.

David Nixon's Dracula (Northern Ballet) - Sexy Dracula TM. Opens with Dracula emerging nude from his coffin. Also features the blood transfusion and a Seward & Renfield number.

Lynne Taylor-Corbett’s Dracula - Inspired by the 1931 Bela Lugosi film, though costumes definitely taking their own route. Designed to accompany a ballet adaptation of The Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allen Poe.

William Starrett's Dracula: Ballet with a Bite - Execution style varies from year to year (at least one year took a modern dance approach), though the storyline remains consistent. Includes Lucy getting staked.

Gonzalo Galguera's Dracula - another Sexy Dracula adaptation, although less Halloween-store-variety and more leather.

Honorary mention: Dracula, Pages from a Virgin's Diary - a Dracula ballet in movie form, shot silent-film style. Switches the order of Lucy and Johnathan's encounters.

If anyone knows of any additional versions out there, let me know and I'll add them to the list!

#also lmk if you have any additional performance comments! I only know the Pink version directly #dracula #dracula daily #dracula ballet #bram stoker #coppola

[dionsysus]

Jonathan and the Brides.

Prints | Instagram

#dracula #jonathan harker #brides of dracula #dracula ballet #my art

[lauralot89]

The Dracula Ballets

And Where to Watch Them

Dracula by Michael Pink: Originally staged in 1997, this ballet's plot is the closest to the novel. Seward does not appear in this version, his role being merged with Van Helsing's. Notable for eeriely beautiful and sometimes brutal choreography, the Harker and Dracula pas de deux, Renfield dancing in a straitjacket, and Quincey dancing briefly with a rifle.

Watch it here.

Dracula by Krzysztof Pastor: This version of Dracula portrays Mina as the reincarnation of the count's late wife, similar to Bram Stoker's Dracula. That film's score is also used in this ballet. Quincey does not appear in this version. Notable for Renfield's haunting dances, one of which he somehow manages while tied to other patients, Dracula's creepy servants, the Dracula Jonathan Tango, and an onstage blood transfusion.

Download it here (if you have a link to the ballet on a video hosting site, please comment and I'll add it to the post).

Dracula: The Romantic Ballet by Ben Stevenson. This ballet is set entirely in Transylvania with a new cast of characters. Besides Dracula, the mortal leads are villagers Flora and Svetlana, and Svetlana's suitor Frederick. Notable because this ballet wants you to know that Dracula fucks: he not only has his ever present brides, but an entire harem to go along with them. He even has locals employed in bringing maidens to his castle. Also this Dracula has seemingly human servants who are fine with it all, I guess.

Watch it here.

Dracula by David Nixon. This ballet intends to portray Dracula as a more ambiguous, nuanced creature. As Nixon puts it, ‘All creatures need to be loved and the love that Dracula shares with Mina transcends the boundaries of good and evil.’ Quincey does not appear in this version. Notable for the creepiest Old Dracula ever seen in anything (with the fun nervous habit of biting himself when he's trying not to bite others), a Seward and Renfield dance, and vampire brides with Christina Aguilera in "Lady Marmalade" hairstyles.

Watch it here (ignore the title and video description, they are incorrect).

Kont Dracula by the Turkish State Opera and Ballet. This is a 2013 adaptation for which I can find no information or video. If you know of a recording of this performance, please comment.

#Dracula #ballet #Dracula ballet #Dracula Daily

[winter2468]

So I watched the Dracula ballet

The woman who gives the crucifix to Jonathan is implied to have had her baby killed by Dracula, in fact, it's probable that her baby is the same one that Dracula later offers his brides.

All the characters of Transylvanian people have costumes that are similar but not identical - there are little differences to show they're not a homogenous mass, they're all individuals with their own lives.

There's a real emphasis on the trauma these people face having to live with Dracula every day.

The reveal of the brides is terrifying. I won't go into detail here because I don't want to spoil it but the appearance of the third bride is especially shocking.

The brides are wearing similar headdresses to the other Transylvanian women, but more elaborate. They might have been ordinary women once, but not any more.

When Dracula stops the brides from feeding on Jonathan and shows them the bag with the baby in it, they react like hungry animals. It's immediately clear that to them, Jonathan was nothing but meat.

When Jonathan's in hospital, he's crying out for Mina, but when she comes to comfort him, he is at first unable to recognise her.

After Jonathan returns to England, he uses a cane and is unable to dance like everyone else.

As he's struggling with the stairs, he sees Dracula and stumbles, and after Dracula has fed from Lucy, she stumbles on the stairs in the same place, and after that struggles to dance.

Renfield is the only character not wearing ballet shoes - he's barefoot.

Renfield is portrayed as unhinged, but still sympathetic.

The pas de deux between Dracula and Mina is so deliberately unsettling - Mina is so viscerally uncomfortable, and keeps trying to push Dracula away, but she can't.

Dracula repeatedly taunts the vampires he's made with the prospect of blood - they're addicts, he's the dispenser, and he's revelling in the power it gives him to torment them.

My only criticism is that the ending was quite rushed, but aside from that, a brilliant production.

#this is not a dracula quote #dracula #dracula ballet #jonathan harker #lucy westenra #mina harker #long post

[thesporkidentity]

hey, everybody remember the dracula ballet?

well good news!

The Milwaukee Ballet is performing it again this year!

tickets are for sale now for 5 performances from october 26-29. if you're able to go and support them and SEE IT LIVE please do!

and if you can't but still enjoyed the recording, consider donating a bit in appreciation so they can continue to do what they do

#dracula #ballet #i'm nowhere near milwaukee so i can't go and it is k i l l i n g me #do it. do it for me #dracula ballet

[myrling-art]

Holy sweet spring time, Batman! Is that the blessed month of May I'm hearing around the corner?

(Dracula Daily, coming around the corner)

*tippy tappy tippy tappy*

#Dracula Daily #GIF #Welcome to Tumblr #Dracula #my friend jonathan harker #dracula ballet

[lifblogs]

Behind the scenes for one of the dancers performing the Dracula ballet!

#dracula #dracula ballet #dancing