Building Dracula

When the curtain rises this Halloween weekend, audiences at the Hult Center will experience a brand-new ballet, born right here in Eugene.

The world premiere of Dracula, choreographed by Eugene Ballet’s Associate Artistic Director and Resident Choreographer Suzanne Haag, is the Eugene Ballet’s most ambitious production to date. From its hand-sewn costumes and custom fangs to aerial choreography and cinematic projections, nearly every aspect of this ballet has been designed, built, and brought to life by local artists, craftspeople, and business partners.

“Creating a full-length ballet has been a dream of mine for years,” says Haag. “It takes an extraordinary amount of collaboration. Dancers, designers, musicians, and incredible organizational and community support make a production like Dracula possible.”

A Community of Creators

The production’s eerie elegance began taking shape months ago at the Booth-Kelly scene shop in Springfield, where Eugene Ballet’s technical team and local artisans have been building the world of Dracula from the ground up. Every prop, set piece, and structural element was crafted locally. “Creating a world premiere ballet at this level is a full-scale theatrical endeavor,” says Executive Director Josh Neckels. “Most of the work happens right here in our community, built by local artists, stitchers, and carpenters. When we invest in these productions, we’re also investing in the creative economy of Lane County. Over 80 percent of what we spend stays right here.”

Each world premiere engages dozens of people from across Eugene’s arts scene, from costume fabricators and painters to lighting designers and videographers. For Dracula, the design team includes Axel Dāzee and Founding Artistic Director Toni Pimble, who collaborated on the ballet’s beautiful costumes, a nod to vintage film noir with a contemporary edge.

Defying Gravity Choreography

One of Haag’s boldest ideas for the production came from a desire to make her “undead women” move in a way that was not quite human. “In Bram Stoker’s novel, these characters exist somewhere between life and death, so I wanted them to move as if gravity didn’t quite apply to them,” Haag explains. To bring this vision to life, she partnered with Bounce Gymnastics to experiment with aerial harness systems, creating choreography that allows dancers to seemingly float, glide, and twist through space.

“It’s unlike anything we’ve done before,” Haag says. “The dancers are literally defying gravity, and that required both technical ingenuity and a lot of trust.”

Local Ingenuity, Shared Vision

From concept to construction, Dracula is a product of collaboration. Smiles for Oregon, a longtime Eugene Ballet sponsor, created custom fangs for the dancers. The Shelton McMurphey Johnson House provided the perfect setting for the ballet’s photo shoot and cinematic trailer, grounding the production’s Victorian atmosphere in local history.

Behind the scenes, Katherine Frizzell, a Eugene-based video artist who has worked with Haag on several past ballets, designed the abstract video projections that form the backdrop of each scene. Her work adds a dreamlike, filmic texture to the performance.

For Neckels, that kind of collaboration is at the heart of Eugene Ballet’s mission. “World premieres are central to who we are,” he says. “They allow us to present audiences with something they’ve never seen before, to foster new ideas, and to create opportunities for exchange between art, culture, and community.”

A Homegrown World Premiere

Eugene Ballet has been creating original work in the community for more than four decades, but Dracula marks a significant milestone: it’s the company’s first world premiere since Jennifer Martin took on the role of Artistic Director and Suzanne Haag assumed her expanded position as Associate Artistic Director and Resident Choreographer. Together, they are guiding Eugene Ballet into a new era of creation and collaboration.

“Dracula represents everything we love about this company,” Haag says. “It’s homegrown, it’s imaginative, and it brings so many different people together to create something extraordinary. It’s a Eugene story told on a grand scale.”

Media by Ari Denison, Katherine Frizzell, and Bob Williams.