By Rebecca Waese
BIGLive’s production of Dracula: Ballet at its Darkest, which premiered in Melbourne this week, reimagines ballet to appeal to a wider audience and ushers in melodrama, elegance and gore. Yes, you should rush to see this, even if you have never seen a ballet; it is a gamechanger. Why not adapt ballet to an iconic, gothic narrative? This thrilling ballet, inspired by Bram Stoker’s novel, Dracula, enthrals. It should come with an MA15 rating; it is full of blood-sucking terror, astonishing athleticism, and gothic surprises.
Coming from a sold-out season in West End London and successful runs in the US and Asia, BIG LIVE’s production of Dracula: Ballet at its Darkest opened at Her Majesty’s Theatre in Melbourne on September 10th to a vibrant and enthusiastic audience. Devised by Australian production company BIGLive, co-founded by Executive Director Khalid Tarabay, and Artistic Director, Choreographer and Principal dancer Joel Burke, this is a Brisbane-born tour de force set to captivate audiences all around the world.
Australian Composer Jason Fernandez brings cinematic creativity to the musical score, piecing together recognisable classics from Bach, Debussy, Liszt, and more, with additional original music composed by Toby Alexander. Fernandez has composed musical scores for stage, film, and television, including collaborating with Baz Lurhmann on the soundtrack to the 2013 film, The Great Gatsby, and, more recently, BIGLive’s The Great Gatsby: a Jazz Ballet which premiered in February 2026. Audiences responded audibly with shivers of delight when Bach’s most famous organ refrain of doom – DA, da da da da, DA, da da da da DA, (Toccata and Fugue in D Minor) boomed out through the theatre, synchronised meticulously with dark red lighting and thunder sound effects as people exhaled in anticipation.
The Prologue opens upon a dense forest in 17th century Transylvania where Vlad, a formidable warrior, performed explosively by Ervin Zagidullin, learns that his wife has been put to death by the Church. In a furious battle with sword play and mounting despair, Vlad renounces his faith and connection to the Church. He dances with rage and fury, defying all expectations of gravity, as he sells his soul and begins his dark transformation into Count Dracula, Lord of the Vampires. Don’t fret if a pre-read of the synopsis hasn’t solidified every detail of the story for you. Succumb to the athleticism and embodiment of Vlad’s torment and descent – this is the most complex part of the narrative – and you’ll be in good stead for the rest of the performance.
Act 1 resumes two hundred years later in a spectacularly rendered gothic castle in England, (kudos to set designer Martin Thomas and Eric Luchen), with Count Dracula preying on a young bride, Mina, performed by Abbey Hansen, who is meant to look eerily like Vlad’s murdered wife. Hansen is divinely cast as the youthful bride of Jonathan, performed by Joel Burke, who accompanies Hansen in an exquisite pas de deux to Debussy’s “Clair de Lune.” Burke is youth and strength personified, lifting Hansen fluidly as she melts backwards into deep cambrés, supported high in the air and bending with liquid grace, diaphanous in her peach negligee. They are the portrait of romantic lovers on their wedding night. Suddenly, the mood shifts to horror as four hooded ghoulish brides burst into the honeymoon suite. Performed by Giselle Osborne, Rose Maloney, Mia Zanardo and Emilia Bignami, these ghost brides of Dracula steal the show. Costume Designers Sophia Drakos, Fiona Holley, Jennifer Burke and Alisha Biddles have hit the mark with the ghosts’ nightmarish garb and uncanny appearances. The ghosts wear ripped greyish white gowns, long white wigs half-braided in a youthful style, and appear a deathly white with skeletal shadows on their faces. Their synchronised bourrée en pointe as they descend towards their prey, arms raised high, eyes like daggers, is terrifying and fantastic, all at once. Sharp demented angles of their heads, arms, and legs indicate they are not of the land of the living. They dance with ferocity and possession, capturing Mina and taking her to Count Dracula, leaving Jonathan to despair alone.
Melodrama in the Second Act is high, enhanced by the exceptional lighting design of Verity Hampson, which offers cinematic framing in red and bright white, on key moments in the tragedy. Dracula bites Jonathan at the conclusion of a territorial pas de deux where he turns Jonathan into a vampire and Dracula’s seduction and possession of Mina is disturbing and darkly lit. Spotlight work is exceptional, timed precisely with the dramatic choreography, and sound and light effects add doom and darkness to the melodrama. Burke shows tension and then remorse in the scene where Jonathan cannot control his vampiric instincts and sinks his teeth into his love. Grief, despair, tension, suspense – I’ve never felt these emotions while watching a ballet, and I loved it.
The company of dancers was strong, graceful, athletic and versatile, playing soldiers and villagers and dancing guests. They conveyed the optimism of youth in their battle against Dracula and contrasted greatly against the evil forces of death inside the castle. When Mina becomes a ghost, her transformation is stark and heartbreaking against the fresh, nubile young women and valiant men who attempt to save her. Alas, this tale is destined for tragedy, and the climactic end is violent and vicious with extraordinary stage fighting, desperate retreats, surprising predatory attacks, and tragic sacrifice.
While Dracula: Ballet at its Darkest does not feature a live orchestra which often accompanies a ballet of this magnitude and has a few compromised sightlines where audience members may struggle to see Mina locked away and Dracula biting Jonathan, this adaptation is pure dynamite. It is explosive ballet with a gripping, gory narrative that drives a stake through the heart of bygone ballets that aim to please and delight; this is the stuff of nightmares, and the audience went wild for it. I highly recommend it; be quick to grab a seat.
