‘Dracula’ Opens Milwaukee Ballet’s Season

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Photo: Milwaukee Ballet - milwaukeeballet.org

Milwaukee Ballet ‘Dracula’

Milwaukee Ballet's ‘Dracula’

Any revival of Michael Pink’s Dracula is cause for celebration, but the one about to open the new Milwaukee Ballet season October 26-29 at the Marcus Performing Arts Center has historic significance. It will be the farewell performance of leading artist Davit Hovhannisyan after 20 years of consistently breathtaking dancing in Milwaukee. It will be his fifth time in the title role, a role he loves so much that he requested this revival as his way to close this stage of his career. Now 41-years old, he’ll transition to the role of teacher for the young dancers of Milwaukee Ballet’s second company, known as MBII.

“I’ve been blessed,” he tells me, “to be here this long, and to leave the stage in the way that I’m going to. It’s all artists’ dream to end a career on their own terms. It’s everyone’s dream. I can’t take it easy, though. I’m treating this as I did the first time, making sure to perform at the highest level and paying tremendous attention to details. When I’m onstage, I give my all.” 

Faithful to the characters and tone of Bram Stoker’s great novel, Pink and composer Phillip Feeney created their Dracula in 1996 for England’s Northern Ballet Theatre, Pink’s home company before he accepted the artistic directorship here in 2002. Over the years, the ballet has become an international hit. 

“This is the fourth time I’m doing it this season,” Pink tells me. “First Denver, then Pittsburgh, then Tokyo, and now here. Pittsburgh’s was a first. The others have done it several times. I think their audiences wanted it back, which is fantastic. It’s popular for the right reasons. It’s very accessible.”

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Photo: Milwaukee Ballet - milwaukeeballet.org

Michael Pink

Michael Pink

We spoke during a rehearsal break. I’d had the privilege of watching Pink rehearse with leading artists Alana Griffith and Barry Molina. Griffith plays Mina, with whom Count Dracula is so obsessed that he’s traveled to England from his Transylvania castle to find her and possess her. Molina plays Renfield, a bug-eating madman linked psychically to Dracula. Mina has teamed with the vampire hunters to destroy the Count and needs information from the dangerous Renfield. 

Intensely Dramatic 

Molina’s and Griffith’s partnering in the scene is complicated by the fact that Molina’s arms are tightly locked inside a strait jacket. He sneakily kisses her hand, falls, crawls, lurches, while Griffith coaxes, flinches, and flees en pointe. The scene is immensely dramatic. Feeney’s musical accompaniment is killing. Sitting just a few feet distant, I’m close to tears.

Pink gives them acting and timing notes. The choreography, he tells me afterwards, “is designed for the truth of the situation. The dancers find their truth; then they can relate to each other. Somebody touches you and you turn, but if the timing isn’t right, it’s not truthful. It’s people moving to music and anticipating the next move. You’ve got to pretend you know don’t know what’s coming next. And these guys are good at that.”

Leading artist Marize Fumero, who’ll play the major role of Lucy, the high-spirited English socialite and eventual Dracula victim, is also involved in our conversation. 

“Michael has mastered a way of teaching us when we’re doing too much or too little,” she explains. “It’s a really fine line. And not doing too much is as hard as not doing enough.”

Griffith agrees. “We make it personal. For the audience, it’s like you’re looking into the story instead of having it yelled at you.”

Indeed, these dancers are superb actors. But given the importance of the acting, Pink thinks that audiences can underestimate the choreographic challenges. Griffith’s reaction is passionate. “Act Three starts with a solo for Mina that’s unbelievably detailed. I walk away from rehearsals with my feet throbbing.”

Choreographic Languages

“Michael has created three different choreographic languages in Dracula,” she continues. “Act One in Transylvania is low to the ground and extreme. Act Two in England is very refined and British. We’re in the hotel lobby, there’s a tea dance, and all of Lucy’s pas de deux.  Act Three is wilder and ends with the pas de deux for Mina and Dracula turning into a blood bath. There’s blood on stage.”

Florentine Opera singers will vocalize that “Blood Mass.” The live Ballet Orchestra will play Feeney’s horror movie score. 

This is Fumero’s second time as Lucy. “I was very young in 2018. Now everything feels different. I think after having my baby, I’m another person, and maybe that’s why. Lucy is the happiest person you can be. She wants to keep playing and having love, life, and not being told what to do. I don’t act on stage.  I rely on things inside of me. I give 100% of my feelings.”

She’s finding ways to dance Act Two as if she were entirely a piece of silk. Then she’s bitten and transforms.

Evening performances are Oct. 27-29 with additional matinees Oct. 28-29 at the Marcus Performing Arts Center. For tickets, call the Milwaukee Ballet box office at 414-902-2103 or visit milwaukeeballet.org.