Behind the Fangs – er, Scenes: Dracula – The Ballet

Published October 23, 2026

Behind the Fangs – er, Scenes: Dracula – The Ballet

On November 1, 2026 at 6:30pm SNB will present the popular full length story ballet, Dracula – The Ballet, by audience request at the Pioneer Center for the Performing Arts in Reno followed by the Dracula Ball at the Renaissance Hotel.

Filer image element — Sara Weir as "Mina"

Ananda Bena-Weber first created this brilliant piece of performance art in 2023 and has shortened and updated it to make it even more captivating and thrilling for 2026 audiences. The updated version opened in Carson City to a standing ovation on October 17, 2026.

It took Ananda months and months of preparation work before starting to work on the choreography as she wanted to make the ballet as close to the Bram Stoker classic as possible.

First, Ananda read the 1897 novel a number of times. She then created a storyboard where she picked the characters and outlined the actual scene-to-scene action that would take place to depict the story. She listened to music by different composers to find the composer whose work had the appropriate musical “feeling” for the ballet. Once she had identified Astor Piazzolla, she picked certain musical compositions to match each scene on the storyboard. That process took quite some time to complete as it involved proper musical edits.

Ananda then made a plan for sets and lighting to create the appropriate atmosphere. This involved meetings with the tech director and lighting designer. Then she met with the costume team and set team to create the costumes and sets needed for each member of the cast.

Once the storyboard, music, set, costume designs and light designs were complete, Ananda began to cast the ballet. Dancers were chosen through the audition process. “Story ballets” require dancers who can perform the choreography both technically and artistically. In the case of Dracula – The Ballet, dancers must have a strong sense of the dramatic and be able to “act” as well as dance.

When the cast was chosen, Ananda began to work on the actual “Tango flavored” choreography with the dancers.

Since the character of Dracula exists by biting his victims, the last challenge was creating the proper “blood” for the stage. It took many tries to get the exact consistency that would be effective and possible for dancers to have in their mouths. (SNB’s blood is made of a chocolate concoction).

While the viewing audience may be aware of the blood effect, the 20 dancers, the 45 different costumes, and the 90 set/prop pieces involved – few realize that there are over 150 different light and sound cues that are used to create the contrast between the characters who are alive and the surreal world of the undead.

Malachi Squires, who dances the title role of Dracula, praised the work of Ananda Bena-Weber stating, “The effect of the lighting and sound creates its own environment around us which makes it easier for us (as artists) to portray our different characters.”

The story requires the scenes to take place in various different locations and, rather than being distracting for audiences, Bena-Weber has brilliantly incorporated this into the story by having the set pieces moved by the dancers and choreographed into the scenes. This adds to the very sinister, eerie effect to the ballet.

Bena-Weber described the choreographed set moves: “I want this to seem to the audience as if – while they are watching the ballet – the ballet is watching them.”

The choreographed set moving is very effective but not easy to achieve.

Dancer Madeline Lee performs two different featured roles in the ballet and helps direct the complicated set moves: “I wrote out every single set move and assigned a dancer for each one; I created a set move Excel sheet, and gave it to each dancer in the cast. We had several set move rehearsals where the dancers performed only the set move choreography without doing the rest of the ballet. Finally, we rehearsed the entire ballet together with the set moves. It was a lot of work and took a lot of time but it was worth it. It creates a unique performance experience for the audience.”

I agree with Madeline. This ballet is an amazing and captivating work of art and one of my very favorite ballets that SNB has produced.

Do not miss it! Wear your favorite Halloween costume and come join us at the Pioneer Center for Dracula – The Ballet on November 1, 2026 at 6:30pm and then meet the cast at the Renaissance Hotel directly following the performance for the Dracula Ball (free with your ticket).