★★★★★
You cannot stage Dracula as a ballet unless you go all in. It has to be lavish. It has to seduce. West Australian Ballet understands that from the first moment, and this production delivers scale, spectacle, and a dark, intoxicating beauty that, like Dracula’s love of Elizabeth, never lets go.
There is always a layer of scepticism in ballet audiences. Anything that isn’t Swan Lake or The Nutcracker can feel like a risk. This is not a story short on baggage either. Dracula has been told countless times across literature, film, and theatre, including recently in Nosferatu. But never quite like this.
That familiarity becomes the production’s greatest strength. The story is already in our blood. You don’t have to work to follow it. You are free to sit back and watch the athleticism. The shapes. The bodies. The sheer physical storytelling.
Krzysztof Pastor’s production, which premiered in 2018 and has since toured internationally, leans into that advantage. The narrative is clear and fluid. It moves quickly. It trusts the audience. That allows the choreography to carry emotional weight rather than exposition.
And beneath the horror, it is unmistakably a classic tale. Lost love. Redemption. Lust. Fear of death. Madness. It sits comfortably alongside Faust and even echoes Swan Lake. Strip away the fangs, and you’re left with something operatic. Something deeply human.
The design work is where the production earns its right to exist. Phil R Daniels and Charles Cusick Smith’s costumes are extraordinary. Lace, translucence, and Victorian mourning textures create a world that feels decayed and elegant. The female vampires look like fragments of memory unravelling in real time. Their silhouettes dissolve at the edges. You never quite see the full figure. It is unsettling in the best way.
The scale is staggering. Over 150 costumes. More than 70 props. Hundreds of kilograms of material transported. This is not a modest touring production. It is a logistical feat. And it lands in a country that consistently underfunds its legacy arts.
That context matters. Especially in light of the controversy surrounding the use of a recorded score from the West Australian Symphony Orchestra. Yes, there is loss in not having a live orchestra. There is also reality.
The WA orchestra was paid. They continue to be paid for reuse. More importantly, this production employs a large number of dancers, creatives, and local artists in each city it visits. West Australian Ballet has not been in Adelaide for a decade. Their return matters.
The answer is not a war between ballet and symphony. It is a war between both of them and governments that refuse to fund them properly. South Australia remains the only state without a state funded ballet company. The traditional model has always been collaboration. Sets and costumes travel. Local artists perform. Costs are shared. That is how these art forms survive.
There is genuine fear in the industry right now. Not just from funding cuts, but from the broader anxiety of replacement in an AI-driven world. That fear deserves acknowledgment. But so does the work on stage. And this is work worth defending.
The lighting design by Jon Buswell is a standout. Vampires fear sunlight. Humans fear the dark. Buswell uses both with precision. Scenes flicker between exposure and concealment. The vampire lair sequence is a highlight. Dancers stand atop coffins under isolated spotlights. It feels almost like Bohemian Rhapsody. It also feels like a music video. The choreography here shifts into something more contemporary. It pulses. It breathes.
Elsewhere, the tone returns to classical form. The scenes in Mrs Westenra’s home are grounded in traditional ballet language. Courtship becomes competition. Bodies circle. Tension builds through formality.
The performances are consistently strong. Oscar Valdés as Young Dracula is magnetic. Ludovico Di Ubaldo’s Old Dracula is something else entirely. His physicality shifts between fragility and menace. The transformation from aged, broken figure to revitalised predator is executed with near cinematic precision. It feels like movie magic happening in real time.
Jurgen Rahimi’s Jonathan Harker brings a muscular presence to the duets, particularly in the moments where blood awakens Dracula’s hunger. These pas de deux are intense. Physical. Almost combative.
Chihiro Nomura carries the emotional centre as Elizabeth/Mina. The choreography does not always give her extended solo space, but her presence anchors the narrative.
Mayume Noguromi’s Lucy is a standout. Her sleepwalking sequence is haunting. Her transition into vampirism, dancing en pointe, adds an eerie, almost unnatural quality to her movement.
Jesse Homes as Renfield delivers one of the most compelling character pieces of the night. The asylum scenes are unsettling. The flailing straitjacket straps become part of the choreography. Madness is rendered physical. Tangible.
The choreography overall relies heavily on duets and ensemble work. There are fewer extended solos than traditional ballet audiences might expect. But it works. This is a story about connection. About influence. About bodies pulling each other toward darkness.
The score, drawn from Wojciech Kilar’s composition for Bram Stoker’s Dracula, is a Hollywood soundtrack. It drives the narrative forward. It does not linger in the way Tchaikovsky does. You won’t leave humming it at work the next day. There is no Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy moment here. But that’s not the point. It serves the story. It builds atmosphere. It sustains tension.
And ultimately, that’s what this production does best. It builds a world. One that is coherent. One that is seductive. One that justifies its existence beyond novelty.
Timothée Chalamet may not agree, but productions like this make the case that we don’t need another film adaptation. We need more of this. Ambitious Australian ballet that travels. That exports. That proves we can create work of international standard.
This is not just a successful adaptation. It is a statement.
Fund it.
Dracula is presented by West Australian Ballet in a co-production with Queensland Ballet and runs to 22 April at the Adelaide Festival Theatre. King William Street Adelaide SA 5000.
It then heads to Perth from 15-30 May.
Tickets are available here.
Website: https://waballet.com.au/dracula
Socials: https://www.instagram.com/waballet/
Photo credits: Jonathan VDK
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2 responses to “Review: Dracula Returns To Adelaide & Makes A Powerful Case For The Arts”
I totally agree with you, thank you for this review. As a music teacher, musician and parent of an Adelaide born professional male ballet dancer (who works in Poland) whose girlfriend of 5 years is in the WAB and performed in this show, your assessment of the situation surrounding the ballet was most welcome. It is indeed disappointing that the symphony and the ballet company are in a disagreement, and musicians sought support from the audience. I missed the opportunity to speak to them, but I would have made the very same point that you did! Additionally, had the ASO been employed to play for the ballet, difficulties would arise with their inexperience at playing for a live ballet, where timing, fluidity and co-operation is essential. Even if the WASO conductor was brought across to work with the orchestra it would require more rehearsal, time and money, although being a highly valuable experience. And sight reading this work? …
Then considering the expense and danger (to valuable instruments) that flying WASO to Adelaide from Perth would add, the action of ‘keep music live’ was directed toward the wrong people. As you intimated, the government are best placed to assist with support of our valued legacy arts.
As a final point, the ruckus was disappointing. It devalued the point that an Australian ballet company took the huge risk to come to Adelaide. This ballet company is one that our young, developing ballet artists can actually aspire to be in!! (my own son was a Young Artist there for a year’s valuable development) How often do our young artists see that? What opportunity was understated for our dancers-in-training??
I was glad to see the co-operation between the WAB and the newly formed Adelaide Ballet, a new professional ballet company in Adelaide, with the goal of becoming that which we are sorely missing in beautiful Adelaide.
It was refreshing to see ballet beyond Sleeping Beauty. I hope WAB will be encouraged to return