Schmidt's brand-new ballet recalls the sensational murders that began in 1888 and continued for the next three years.

A production of lights and sets, smoke and fog turn the stage into 19th-century London. "This is pretty much a multi-media performance," Schmidt said. "I think we've rented every fog machine in town for this."

William Starrett, the company's director, is acutely aware of the recent fascination with vampires.

There's "True Blood" on HBO and "The Vampire Diaries" on the CW network, and the "Twilight" movie franchise will release its second installment next month.There's even a vampire iPhone application.

Just when a “South Park” cover of Lady Gaga’s “Pokerface” seemed like the most unusual pairing she could be part of, the singer herself has upped the ante. Lady Gaga, the pop star known as much for her baroque wardrobe as for her music, will be performing with dancers from the Bolshoi Ballet in a new work that will be presented at gala for the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles.

Artistic directors Dwight Rhoden and Desmond Richardson built Complexions Contemporary Ballet around an idea: to give more than lip service to multiculturalism. Not for the politically correct sake of it, but because they believe the dance company's relevance depends on reflecting the increasingly interconnected world around them.

"I know a lot of people talk about it, but we've always done it," Rhoden says in a phone interview after the racially and ethnically diverse troupe celebrated its 15th anniversary with a gala. As part of its new season, the New York-based company stops tonight and Friday at the new Winspear Opera House to open TITAS' annual dance series.

Choreographed by Weiss and principal dancer Attila Bongar, the ballet is broken into four sections. J. Mark Searce, director of the University’s music department, was tapped to compose original scores for “Guernica” and “Song of the Dead.”

“Salome” opens the ballet. Modeled on the Biblical tale, four characters populate the stage. Salome (Randi Osetek) flirts with Herod (Bongar) after receiving her wish. Herod flirts right back, to the consternation of his wife (Rossana Nesta Gahagan). Salome dances a pas de trois with the king and his slave (Eugene Barnes) merely to show off her seductive skills. The quartet work well together and give a sense of the emotions bubbling over behind the usual sanitized version.

Stevenson first came up with the idea of doing a ballet based on Dracula when he was working with the American Ballet Theatre. Kevin McKenzie, then the company's principal male dancer, asked Stevenson about creating a ballet for him.

"I told him I would think about it, and that evening I turned on the television and there was Bela Lugosi in 'Dracula,' " Stevenson said. "Now Kevin is this tall, thin, darkly handsome fellow, and I could see him as Dracula." However, that project never came about, and Stevenson put the idea "on the back burner" until 1997, when he was artistic director at Houston Ballet.

"If Mr. B were alive today, he'd say, 'Wow, now we can finally hear Tchaikovsky the way it's supposed to be played.'" That's Peter Martins of the New York City Ballet, invoking George Balanchine while talking last week about renovations at the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center, which include an enlarged orchestra pit that can accommodate about 100 musicians, 30 to 35 more than before.

There will be no Sugar Plum Fairy twirling or Mouse King leaping for Alexandria children this holiday season. The Alexandria Ballet has cancelled the 2009 Nutcracker performances, another victim of the economic downturn.
In the past, Virginia Britton, owner and artistic director of the ballet, has been able to count on the kindness of "angels" to donate the $25,000 price tag of the seasonal favorite. This year, however, Britton’s angels had to tighten their purse strings, and ballet didn’t make the cut.

According to Britton, ticket sales could generate enough money for the company’s professional dancers. However, the up-front expense of renting the studio for rehearsals and performances would still need to be covered.

On Friday night, the inevitability of this scene was profoundly satisfying. It also brought incidental delights: Marianela Nuñez’s radiant Lilac Fairy, dance as serenely rewarding as mime; Yuhi Choe making adorable sense of the difficult first Fairy variation; Sergey Polunin, one of the Fairy cavaliers, offering classical dancing magnificent in its clarity and power. (He was later to appear to no less splendid effect in the Florestan trio). There are many other delights, and problems, about this ultimate test of academic classicism, for Beauty must stand or fall with its Aurora. On Friday, Sarah Lamb was agreeable, well-mannered. She has a pretty and unforced technique, the challenges to the ballerina’s physical skills easily met, the dance gently charming. But the portrait, emotionally as well as technically, was too soft-grained, too jeune fille.

While the presentation here is undoubtedly quite a spectacle to behold – it’s a somewhat dated subject thematically, and the action can be quite plodding at times, to say the least. Those with limited attention spans will likely be bored to tears apart from the handful of big action sequences (among them, the spectacular arrival of Carabosse and her party of oversized menacing mice) and the seemingly nonstop series of magnificently presented and rousing pas de deux. Clocking in at two-and-a-quarter hours, it runs a bit longish, but true patrons of the ballet will be glued to the edge of their seats in rapt attention to the unfolding opulence. In fact, the very qualities of this presentation that may be seen as detriments among less attentive viewers will easily be seen as the production’s strengths by traditionalists.

The great thing Farrell got out of her dancers was palpable, mutual respect. Hers is a woman-centered, feminine company, and the partnering was not just first-rate, it was a vision of how beautifully one person can address another. The men are beautiful, like stallions, sensitive as pit bulls, and as attentive to the women as any creature I've ever known. You know how a good dog waits for permission, but understands that you are aware of his desires and his powers. The men were like that.

The highlight of the evening was without doubt the pas de deux from Act 2 of "Giselle" performed by principals Aki Saito and Wim Vanlessen. One will be hard pressed to find a more convincing rendition of this piece, whether in a gala or in a full-length performance of the ballet. With its snow white floor and snow white backdrop the setup couldn’t have been further away from Giselle’s moonlit romanticism, yet Saito and Vanlessen immediately took the bare stage to their advantage. Without any preparation they both entered in character and by their emotional connection, based on years of partnership and a perfect understanding of the ballet and its characters, they carried the pas de deux to utterly moving heights. Saito’s dancing is devoid of any exaggeration or excesses, but she touched this rare thing which might be defined as “beauty” by the purity of her plastique, the correctness of her style, and the sincerity of her whole being. Vanlessen, too, revealed more about the role than many others do in the whole ballet; his variation was a marvel of polish and virile elegance, but it was at the same time a piercing cry of remorse.