A Bloody Good Time

Of all the spooky stories to interpret as a ballet, Bram Stoker's Dracula is probably the best one to choose. The well-known tale's certainly scary enough, and it's much easier to picture a slick vampire as a graceful dancer than, say, Frankenstein or Michael Myers — though seeing one of those two lumbering around in tights would be pretty awesome. Alas, BalletMet Columbus (wisely) decided to go for sexy/creepy rather than funny, and you have the opportunity to catch the company's dancerly version of Dracula at 8 p.m. on Thursday and Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. on Saturday, and 2 p.m. on Sunday (October 23 through 26) at the Touhill Performing Arts Center on the University of Missouri-St. Louis campus (1 University Drive at Natural Bridge Road; 314-516-4949 or www.touhill.org). Several special spooktastic activities are planned to accompany most of the shows: Arrive on Thursday night at 7 p.m. to get glow-in-the-dark fangs and free snacks, slurp bloody marys beginning at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday ($10), rock out with the Smash Band post-ballet Saturday night ($20), and meet vampire author Laurell K. Hamilton after the show on Sunday ($5). Tickets to Dracula cost $32 to $55, and you must have a performance ticket to attend any of the pre- or post-show events; for more information visit www.dancestlouis.org.
Oct. 23-26, 2008