Dracula story doesnt fit with pop music

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Dominick Guerra is Dracula in Festival Ballet Albuquerques Dracula: A Love Story. (Courtesy of Pat Berrett)

Think castles, crypts and blood en pointe.

The Festival Ballet Albuquerques Dracula: A Love Story will open Saturday, Oct. 18, at the National Hispanic Cultural Center.

This marks the ballets eighth iteration of the Bram Stoker Gothic classic.

Artistic director Patricia Dickinson began choreographing this Romeo and Juliet story twisted by hate in 1999. She started with the music.

That was the hardest part, she said. I ended up listening to 130 CDs four different versions of Samuel Barbers Adagio for Strings. It doesnt lend itself to pop not even Thriller.

The story begins in 1400s Transylvania, with Vlad the Impaler heading off to war in defense of his church. His enemies convince his princess wife hes been killed and she commits suicide. To compound Vlads loss, the church refuses her last rites.

Thats when he turned on the church miraculously drinking the blood of the church and he transformed into Dracula, Dickinson said. He slithers and oozes across the stage, manipulating his victims like a master puppeteer.

I have him depicted as stabbing the altar. Youve got to get the point when the lights go red.

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Dracula story doesnt fit with pop music

Reviewed and Recommended by Erik Baquero