Dance / Dracula, BIG Live. At Canberra Theatre, until October 24. Reviewed by SAMARA PURNELL.

Dracula opens with a dark battle scene where Vlad is destroying his enemies.

The delivery of a letter telling him his wife has been killed sparks his transformation from Vlad into Dracula (Ervin Zagidullin), complete with bat-winged cape.

Director and choreographer Joel Burke, who plays the other male lead of Jonathan, based this telling of Dracula on Bram Stoker’s novel, but has heavily adapted it. He sees ballet as not just beauty and elegance, but gory, primal, human. And in this production, he wanted to emphasise the masculinity of Dracula and the contrast of Mina as sensual and soft. Despite this, this production really downplays the sexual intensity seen in most tellings of Dracula and the reluctant but complete succumbing of Mina to him.

Abbey Hansen as Mina, gives her best performance on the Canberra stage to date. Her dance expression changes between the softness and anticipation of the honeymoon, where, dressed in an exquisitely pretty maroon costume and newly wedded to Jonathan, she and Burke tenderly dance a beautifully choreographed honeymoon pas de deux – to her intense, fraught dances with Dracula, who flings her around like a rag-doll in some stunning lifts and poses.

Bourke and Hansen appear the same height, but Burke’s assured partnering of Hansen allows her to fully execute impressive leg-lines and backbends. Zagidullin’s elevation and leaps leave the audience gasping. The choreography is filled with lifts, holds and dips not usually seen in classical ballet. They hang a split-second longer in the air than seems possible and it’s thrilling to watch.

Bourke’s intention to use the music and lighting as stand-alone emotional and story-telling cues is clearly evident. So dramatic and heavy-handedly so that at times the audience giggled.

The lighting design by Dan Sharpe has the dancers bathed in dark red or almost darkness for much of the performance, and with a waft of smoke and given the black costume of Dracula, it raised the question if patrons at the back of the theatre could see more than the white make-up in parts of the performance.

The classical music score was created by Toby Alexander, who uses instantly recognisable and iconic pieces throughout.

An impressive set was used for Dracula’s castle, with stained glass windows, creative use of light and dramatic staircases.

Ghosts inhabiting Dracula’s castle amusingly appear from out of cupboards and hide under the bed. At times balletic in their dancing, at others zombie-esque, they were striking-looking in platinum wigs and jagged-cut hemmed dresses,

The synchronicity of the ghosts as well as the ensemble as the townsfolk was notable, although when all couples were on stage, it was a tight fit. The ensemble sequences were kept short and exciting. This company always creates lovely pairings and this production was no different.

BIG Live’s productions are all about spectacle – leaps, lifts, spins, big movements, expression and fun. Not every spin and jump is landed in total control, but the dancers are going at 110 per cent every time which is spectacular for the audience, who audibly marvel at it.

Between the music, lighting and dramatic dancing, at the black-out for interval the audience drew breath, with comments of “Holy Smokes!”

The ghosts eventually take Mina to Jonathan, who has been transformed into a vampire. And the townsfolk descend on Dracula’s castle, with a bucket of stakes in hand. The reprisal dance between Mina and Jonathan is beautiful, the marathon pas de deux with Dracula intense and the showdown between Dracula and Jonathan comes to a head.

As the 1812 Overture rings out, the body count goes up in a finale of death, blood and fouettes, with a twist to the ending.

Two hours went by in a flash in this wonderfully entertaining, dark and dramatic spectacle, where ballet was, as the tagline said, quite literally “At its darkest”.