A Bevy of Balletic Beauties
Arrived at the Princess's palace for pre-ballet pot-luck. A great meal, everyone had prepared a lot of food and we had plenty, which is much better than not enough! Saw photos of Raro.
I was surprised to discover that none of the male partners of the ladies present were attending the ballet, which left me to escort four beautiful women to the ballet by myself, M, holding_pattern, Princess jenni_talula, and her mythical sister, K.
In the theatre foyer we ran into allyn, rivet and tinkerdbell, I got a hug from rivet, as they went past to pick up their tickets, which made me feel special, seeing as she was looking teh hot, but I didn't see them again (sorry!) because the girls decided to go and sit down before they got back.
So then the show itself. The audio-visual presentation was superb, a wonderful use of light, darkness, scented smoke and sound to evoke many different moods. A combination of physical props, lighting, video, and smoke made it sometimes hard to determine what was real and what was not.
The ballet was split into three parts, Harker's initial visit to Transylvania, the arrival of Dracula in London and the taking of Lucy Van Helsing, and then the seduction of Mina and the denouement.
The first part had a dance of Transylvanian peasants and a successful wolf hunt, during which a fantastically realistic corpse of a white wolf was hunted down and strung up by the peasants. I felt a twinge as I watched it, I thought of Wolves Rain, and I thought of Johnny Two Trees. The peasant women seemed a bit forward in their attempts to convince Harker not to go to Castle Dracula, but go he does.
Once there he meets Dracula. When I first saw the imposing. long haired, Dracula in a long red coat, I thought taraxgoat. And then I thought Lucius Malfoy, and then finally I thought Haldir. Mix those three together with a wonderful physique and massive pecs and you have this productions Dracula.
The three lascivious brides of Dracula did their thing, the most impressive being the one who seemed to rise out of the bed Harker was lying on. Yes, as evie_fae commented, ballet dancers are teh sexy, vampires are teh sexy, so vampire ballet dancers are, well they make me go all weak at the knees.
And then once Dracula had pushed away the brides, we get the pas de deux between Harker and Dracula.
jarratt_gray, I see exactly what you mean. Woof! Dracula throwing a bare chested Harker around, and crawling over him as he is crucified over the edge of the bed.
Then Harker awakens back home with Nina and the act ends. I bought a chocolate Magnum, and had t almost press my face in a plaster female bust whilst getting it.
The second act opened with the gaiety of London society, lots of little vignettes and stories unfolded in an ensemble number, I most enjoyed the way the soldiers got the school girls despite their chaperone, the romance the page boy had with one of the maid-servants, and the gothic lolita in the black dress.
As Lucy is taken, the way Dracula's control was represented in the dance was wonderful, and her final surrender, the whole thing really brought out the D/S aspect of the vampire mythology, as did Dracula's treatment of Mina in the third act
Lucy's death and ressurrectuon was handled well, and the creepy Renfield visible high in the background throughout reminded me of the Renfield in the dangling cage we saw in the Palmerston North generator house.
The final act was appropriately effective, with Mina being seduced in bed with Harker lying right next to her. The violence of Mina being taken largely against her will contrasted nicely with the calm controlled way that Lucy was dealt with. When Quincy interrupts Dracula with Nina, their dissappearnce was very well done.
Lucy taking the little girl playing with her ball was creepy. Turns out the girl is one of mythical sister K's students.
Then we move to the crypt, where a heart beat drove the music of the black clad 'goth' vampire dancers, until the arrival of Mina and Dracula, and Renfield whose throat is cut by Dracula and then thrown to the vampires. Blood is smeared over Lucy's white underwear.
The crypt is blown open and sunlight streams in Dracula is staked and disappears in a cloud of smoke, but not before mortally wounding Quincy.
The final spot on Mina as she feels her neck and we hear the tinkling signature of Dracula, implying that perhaps it is not really over yet....
Lots of lovely little touches, like the way Dracula would quick bodies as as he stepped over them, and they would roll from the kick. The simple but effective use of smoke for Dracula to disappear or appear in.
The major downer of the evening was that the scented smoke unfortunately irritated my tetchy throat, and I spent some time trying to suppress coughs during the quite bits. Luckily there were quite a few loud bits when it didn't matter.
When the cast came to take their bows, whilst the other players smiled and waved and acted as players, Dracula remained in character throughout striding slowly to the centre of the stage and raising his arms. I don't know if anyone else felt the urge to rise in adoration when he did that, but I sure did. The guy had a remarkably commanding presence.
Hell, I might as well admit it, he was fucking sexy, if he'd pointed at me and crooked his finger I'd have climbed over the orchestra to obey. I don't often get affected by guys like that. and I know he was enhanced by mood, make-up, and lighting, but still, that body, someone with that much strength and poise...Brrrrr, I'm chilled thinking about what he could do to you.
So it was over and we left.
On the way home a car-load of yobs in a car with loud thumpy music accosted us at the Taranaki St lights. The cads were drowning out the Princess's Tori and it was obvious they were trying to impress what might have looked to them like a car-load of girls. In good form, the Princess instructed everyone n the car to ignore them, except me who was to wave at them as if I was interested. A cunning and dastardly plan, but unfortunately the drove off too quickly to put it into effect.
As holding_pattern said, although the ballet was a bit of a downer, we were all cheered up by the Princess going backwards and forwards in her car when we got back. It was so awe-inspiringly exciting that it quite upstaged the later description of the grace of the princess and her mythical sister donning their flippers.
Up to the place to share a hot lezzo, and then back here to write it all down.
Was tempted to just go into town and rave again, but I should probably wait until the scratchy throat is fixed
[Edited to properly name the heroine and reduce confusion, thanks Evie!]