Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "Lavish sets and spectacular production values, including simulated flying, elevate Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre's 'Dracula,' which was revived this weekend at the Benedum Center Downtown. The ballet is a co-production with Houston Ballet and was first seen in 1997. Choreographer Ben Stevenson's language uses a lot of pantomime in addition to classical ballet moves to develop the characters and advance the action.
Monday, February 14, 2011
Review: 'Dracula' a lavish Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre production
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "Lavish sets and spectacular production values, including simulated flying, elevate Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre's 'Dracula,' which was revived this weekend at the Benedum Center Downtown. The ballet is a co-production with Houston Ballet and was first seen in 1997. Choreographer Ben Stevenson's language uses a lot of pantomime in addition to classical ballet moves to develop the characters and advance the action.
Dracula is a wonderful ballet that even non-ballet fans can enjoy. It has the razzle dazzle of a Broadway show, an action story that has more fight choreography than lavish dance numbers, and it's a story everyone knows. I've never seen it performed for Valentine's Day. I wonder how the ticket sales differ from an October slot to a February slot. Even though the show is great, I am sure the audience count is heavily influenced by the time of the year, with high ticket sales around Halloween. Thankfully the run of the show was short run though before the press came out about the lackluster of Dracula. That's a large, powerful role to take on, especially with the costume, and the wrong dancer can dampen the entire production.
ReplyDelete