Kentucky Ballet Theatre marks 25 years of 'Dracula' at the Lexington Opera House

LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX NEWS) — With Halloween just a week away, Kentucky Ballet Theatre is celebrating its 25th season of performing its spine-chilling rendition of "Dracula" at the Lexington Opera House.

LEX News' Annie Brown got a look behind-the-scenes as dancers put the finishing touches on the ballet before performing it this weekend.

From pointe shoes to fangs, and a few surprises along the way. "Dracula" is the ballet that bites back.

"It has a lot of scenes that they have to be quite surprised for the audience when they see it, not scary, but for the audience, they'll be impressed by the choreography and the props and all that," artistic director Norbe Risco said.

It takes about a month and a half to cast and choreograph about 50 performers — from age 12 all the way to the professional level — along with elaborate costumes created by Risco's wife, Rafaela, for Dracula to come to life.

"We work for about a month and a half, you know, cleaning up everything because every season we have new dances that we have to teach them and but it's very emotional and challenging for them because it's always something new that we have to work about in Dracula to make it exciting," Risco said.

Back for its 25th year, Risco says it's become a community favorite — and like Dracula himself, it's as haunting as it is captivating.

"I got inspired by Bram Stoker's Dracula, and I wanted to try to portray the scene that people see in the book here on stage. For example, the scene when he [Dracula] finds her [Elizabeta] at the church altar that she's dead. And he gets, he got crazy about it because he loved her so much and then it's when he renounces the church and becomes, — gives his soul to evil — and it's very powerful and with the death pat de deux in the beginning it's so emotional to see that," Risco said.

"It's always full of surprises and there is a very exciting show. Uh, they will come and they will enjoy it immensely because it goes, it starts growing from the beginning and the climax it's so high and always you think that it's done but it's not because there will be always something good coming after," Risco said.

You can catch "Dracula" at the Lexington Opera House tomorrow and on Sunday.

For tickets, head to kyballet.com

Annie Brown is committed to covering the stories that matter to you. If you have an idea, please reach out to Annie at annie.brown@wlex.tv

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