Back in October I finally read Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and fell in lust with its creepy Victorian sexuality, both prudish and ravenous (what is pointedly unsaid being the same as what is said, after all).

Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre’s Dracula diverged entirely from that plot (Renfield appears, but there is no Mina, no Lucy, no Harker nor his posse of merry chastity protectors). Instead, it’s a simple story of Drac taking one bride, then another, to add to his horde of undead wives. Polygamy! All the rage in Translyvania. They must have those Mormon billboards there, too (“I believe in capes, bats, drafty castles with no mirrors, and sucking blood… and I’m a Mormon. - Count Vlad, Carpathian Mountains).

The costumes were ethereal, the sets spectacular, and my favorite male principal — Nurlan Abougaliev — danced the title role.

I’ll be in Paris for the next PBT performance — A Gershwin Fantasy — but can’t wait for Balanchine come April.