Dracula | Notes from Artistic Director Adam Sklute
Welcome to Ballet West’s 2026/27 season and our revival of Ben Stevenson’s Dracula.
We first premiered Stevenson’s version of this gothic tale in 2011 and it has become, after our founder Willam Christensen’s iconic The Nutcracker, our most popular and requested production. So, it seemed fitting to produce it for the opening of my 20th and final season as Artistic Director of Ballet West. Plus, it is a perfect ballet to celebrate Utah’s beloved Halloween season.
With this production we also honor the loving memory of Ben Stevenson who passed away this past March of 2026 at the age of 90. Ben was arguably one of the world’s greatest story ballet choreographers. He remounted and recreated most of the great classics and conceived and choreographed many new and original story ballets including among many others The Snow Maiden, Alice in Wonderland, Peer Gynt, and Dracula.
This production of Dracula premiered in 1997 to celebrate the centennial of the publication of Bram Stoker’s novel. But Stevenson chooses not to follow the novel specifically. Instead, he uses the text as a blueprint to create a more streamlined story that is evocative of the original Stoker tale but is structured more like many of the 19th century classics. Its operatic grand scale and opulence made it an instant hit, and it is now in the repertoires of companies around the world. At its premiere, The New York Times said “Ben Stevenson's ''Dracula'' is spectacle of an order ballet audiences seldom see today. The sets, costumes and lighting are not just lavish but exquisitely beautiful and atmospheric. The ballet, danced to music by Liszt arranged and conducted by John Lanchbery, is crammed with ingenious stage magic, just as the Romantic-era ballets of the late 19th century were.”
Stevenson places the action in Dracula’s castle in Transylvania and in the peasant village below. The three mortal leads become Flora, a girl from the village, the innkeeper’s daughter Svetlana, and her suitor Frederick. To tell his ballet version of Dracula, Stevenson incorporates elements of great ballet classics, making this truly a neo-Romantic production. This is not too dissimilar to how Bram Stoker himself, borrowed from other famous Gothic horror stories to create his novel.
The character of Frederick resembles Franz, the suitor in Coppelia. In Act II, an old village woman looks back on her life and warns of bad things to come in an extended mime that is much like Giselle’s mother and when Flora later reveals herself to be a vampire, it recalls Giselle’s mad scene. In fact, the whole corps of Dracula’s brides resemble the vengeful Willis or ghostly Sylphs. Interestingly, the original Willis that the ballet Giselle was based on, were indeed vampire spirits who wreaked havoc on men. In this way Ben Stevenson has created a work that plays on many different levels and is not just great theater and dance but an intelligent exploration of the history of ballet.
If you enjoy our revival of Ben Stevenson’s Dracula, please consider returning for our other program’s – each one widely different from the other. Directly following this run we go into a unique and intimate repertory program Rolling with the Stones. The program includes four Utah premieres, each one an unusual gem, including Christopher Bruce’s brilliant and cool Rooster to the early music of The Rolling Stones.
No holiday season is complete, in my opinion, without our Mr. C’s magical production of The Nutcracker. In February we present that grand ballet classic Don Quixote – our first revival of it since 2012 - hilarious, engaging storytelling and dynamic challenging dancing make this both beautiful art and fun filled entertainment.
Our Family Classics Series – designed exclusively for you children and their family’s will be The Glass Slipper, a Pamela Robinson-Harris delightful telling of the Cinderella story. In April, we pair the revivals of George Balanchine’s crystalline work to Bizet’s Symphony in C with Nicolo Fonte’s monumental Carmina Burana, Including a chorus of 70 singers suspended above the dancers singing out to the audience. In May, we present a new Works from Within introducing the world to new creations by Ballet West dancers as they emerge as the next generation of choreographer.
During my tenure as Artistic Director of Ballet West, I have been blessed to be able to expand our annual home season’s programmatic offerings from three when I arrived in 2007 to now seven different productions. I am committed to giving our community the broadest spectrum of ballets from classic to modern, old and new. I hope you enjoy the diversity of offerings Ballet West presents.
Thank you for your patronage,
Adam Sklute
Ballet West Artistic Director