WHAT: Triangle Youth Ballet presents "Dracula -- the Ballet."
WHEN: 8 p.m. Saturday.
WHERE: The Carolina Theatre, Durham.
TICKETS: For tickets, call 919-560-3030.
A portion of proceeds benefit the American Red Cross.
By SUSAN BROILI
Special to The Herald-Sun
Bats flap their wings. Brides of Dracula extend one hand like a claw. Their vampire master looms, always waiting for his next victim. 'Tis the season for another dress rehearsal of Triangle Youth Ballet's "Dracula -- the Ballet."
Scott Holmes, a Durham criminal defense attorney, never envisioned himself in a lead role in a ballet -- much less as Dracula in the upcoming, 90-minute production Saturday at the Carolina Theatre. But that doesn't keep him from appreciating "the irony of having an attorney as Dracula," Holmes, 36, said in a recent telephone interview. He was referring, of course, to the stereotyping of lawyers as bloodsuckers. For the record, he handles death penalty and federal criminal cases.
"Playing an evil, dark person is not in my character," Holmes said. "I'm a Quaker and we're all about the light. Dracula is the embodiment of evil. He exploits women, controls people's minds. ... It's almost like I'm a puppeteer."
Still, he had confidence he could do it because he's had some dance training and theater experience. In high school, he took ballet classes and performed with Oak Ridge Civic Ballet in Oak Ridge, Tenn. While attending UNC's law school, he took modern dance classes, and he has danced in community theater musicals.
He wants his four children to experience dance as well as competitive sports. "The goal is not some competition," Holme said. "The result is a beautiful piece of art they've made to contribute to the world."
When his 10-year-old daughter and 8-year-old son danced in Triangle Youth Ballet's "Nutcracker" last year and he was asked to appear in the party scene, he didn't hesitate. This season, he'll dance a lead role as Drosselmeyer in the production, he said.
He claims he doesn't do much dancing as Dracula. "I'm like a tree," he said.
"The real art is in these wonderful dancers," Holmes said of the 35-member cast.
The scary music (by Phillip Feeney) with moaning and sounds of iron bells and hammers has helped him get into his vampire role, he added.
Audrey Fenske, who dances the role of Mina, wife of Jonathan Harker, also cited the music as upping to the fright factor. The visuals add to the mood as well. At one point, while watching a scene, she and her friend in real life, Anne Sandefur, who dances the role of Lucy, Mina's friend in the ballet, looked at each other and said, "This is really scary. We spooked each other out," Fenske said. A Chapel Hill native, Fenske grew up dancing with Triangle Youth Ballet and teaches there. She graduated in May as Duke University's first dance major.
The intensity of this ballet explains why no child tickets are being sold, Lorentz de Haas said. Student tickets, which include children as young as first-graders, will be available but parents need to decide if the ballet will be too frightening, she added. Holmes said his 5-year-old and 1-year-old sons won't be going and he isn't sure if his two older children will attend.
Lorentz de Haas choreographed the ballet, based on Bram Stoker's novel, in 2004 to give dancers a broader range of dramatic experience beyond ballets filled with swans, sugarplums and snowflakes, she said. "It's dark -- definitely not happy," she said.
For Fenske, who has extensive background as a dancer and choreographer, this experience is like none other. "You have to do some soul-searching," she said of playing a Victorian woman who finds herself in such unusual circumstances. "In dance, we can really let go of these stereotypes and really explore and show the emotional depth that might not have come out in a Victorian novel," Fenske said.
She has plenty to work with in this ballet. "It's just one horrible thing after another and then I get bitten," she said.
"Yeah, I've got some bite scenes," Holmes said. He quickly adds, "There are no dancers who are harmed in the making of this ballet."
