Opening night, October 31st, I am invited (as well as anyone else who attended or plans to attend) by Scorpius Dance Theatre to enter the “intimate den” or “sanctuary” of the vampire world. For an hour and fifteen minutes, the audience witnesses the story of a “forlorn girl” (Keri Fraker) drawn into the intriguing and dark lair of vampires, in the dance production, A Vampire Tale. Although the plot is interesting and the topic of vampires exciting, the choreography by artistic director Lisa Starry was rather blah for such a distinctive theme.
The first image of the evening length work is of the “forlorn girl” performing sorrowful gestures to music box sounds, giving the audience an accurate portrayal of her innocent, yet sad, character. Two minutes into the choreography, Starry gives into the music with movement that resembles a music box doll. Suddenly the dancer is doing light and uplifting movement even though the previous gestures proved her to be a “forlorn girl.” This choreographic decision was confusing and disappointing since the gestural movements started off strong.
Luckily “the watcher” (David Starry) enters to add an eerie air to the atmosphere. He embodies his character perfectly, showing his uncertainty about being a vampire through his curiosity and love for the “forlorn girl.” The two similar yet different characters and dynamics on stage provide an interesting contrast. In fact, each duet between these two characters was the most genuine performance and intriguing choreography of the entire work.
After the audience has ample time to witness the coming together of these two unlikely characters, the curtain opens to reveal a well lit and designed world of vampires. Although the scenery creates a visually pleasing vampire’s lair, the “blood klan” (dancers playing the roles of vampires) choreography was unoriginal and not nearly as exciting as the fantastic topic of vampires.
The choreography was cheesy. Starry presented a version of the vampire that was oversexed and tacky. Accompanied by painfully literal movement, the staging of vampires was boring. There are fourteen bodies on stage throughout much of the show. Having that many people moving gives the choreographer many opportunities to create unique shapes, patterns, or designs, none of which happened. Starry made the artistic choice to display the majority of the choreography in unison. Unison can be an extremely powerful method of presentation, but it has to be clear and clean. Unfortunately, it was neither of these. The diversity in technical levels of the dancers was such a wide range that the unison made this very apparent and distracting.
Even the dancers seemed confused as to what their role as a vampire was, with the exception of “queen of the klan”(Nicole Olson). It was not clear if they were supposed to desire the innocent girl, hate her, want to kill her, or all of the above. Even their focus was confusing. Some of the vampires directly connected with the audience through their gaze, while others looked past the audience, at the girl, or with an introverted stare towards the ground.
But not all scenes were a disaster. Like previously stated, the duets between “the watcher” and the “forlorn girl” worked well with the plot and the two performers interacted well with each other. Other scenes that were nicely done are the aerial scene as well as the transitional scenes with the “strange man” (Stjepan Rojko), but both still contain distracting faults. For example, the aerial work was beautifully performed and demonstrated the various talents of the company members. Yet, the scene had no connection to the greater theme of the show and did nothing to advance the plot. Aerial dance can convey some very powerful messages due to its ability to make a body suspend and float, that is otherwise impossible. It is unfortunate Starry was incapable of making the aerial piece a meaningful scene that was connected to the rest of the plot. Likewise, the transitional scenes with the “strange man” are amusing and Rojko is completely immersed and dedicated to his character making him entertaining to watch, but the transitions were much too long. Nothing significant would take place in these theatrical happenings, so the audience fidgeted in anticipation around me.
The most striking moment of the entire show came in the last duet between the “forlorn girl” and “the watcher.” The entire show “the watcher” is contemplating his devotion to the vampire world and subtly proclaiming his interest in the innocent and sad girl. Unexpectedly he gives into his vampire instincts and takes the girls life at the end of their dynamic and physical duet. It is surprising and breathtaking, a nice ending to a predictable show.
Overall, A Vampire Tale was a disappointing portrayal of the vampire world. The movement was entirely literal, making most of the movement gestural, predictable, and uninteresting. There was not much dancing, and no abstraction to the movement that was presented. It is certainly a good and fun idea to have a show about vampires around the Halloween season, but presented any other time of year in any other setting the show would not survive.
