A knock on the door echoed through the auditorium. Martin Freedman sat forward in the narrow velour covered theatre seat, resting his arms on the chair in front of him. If the stress of the previous three rehearsal filled days took a toll on him, he didn't show it. His eyes scanned the stage as three wolves slithered through the murky darkness, menacingly inching toward Jonathan Harker as he suffered from a delirious dream. Fredmann looked like a parent watching his child take her first few steps. "I'm excited," he said falling back into his seat, unable to keep still. He jerked forward, eagerly pointing at the stage. "It looks good," he said. "It looks good."

Thanks to Fredmann, Dracula has descended on Denver. "I've always wanted to do a Dracula ballet," said Fredmann, artistic director and CEO for the Colorado Ballet. "The topic in the past 10 to 12 years has been very popular. Dracula has a big draw, and now it has a big draw for ballet." Freedman said the largest problem he faced trying to bring a Dracula ballet to Denver was he couldn't find a score he liked. "Most of the scores are rock and roll or synthesizers," he said. His search was over when he learned his one-time roommate and friend, Michael Pink choreographed a version of the ballet. "It's scary. It's passionate. It's sexy," Fredmann said. "It has all the elements of great theater."

The Colorado Ballet is the second company in the United States to perform Pink's creation. In Atlanta, where it was first performed in the States, the ballet sold out. "It brought in men who have never been to a ballet before," Fredmann said. "I wanted to do something that would bring a huge audience in. It would be totally self-serving if we didn't have an audience." Fredmann said he expects attendance for Dracula to compete with the Nutcracker, which has traditionally been the company's most popular production.

The Colorado Ballet spent more than $1 million to produce Dracula. A majority of the budget was spent on the scenery and costumes, which were all constructed in England. "We had to take an extra week to set up the stage," Fredmann said. "Normally a production would take about a week to set up. Dracula took two." To ensure the costumes fit properly, seamstresses from England were flown to Denver to personally tailor the wardrobes to the dancers. "We've had people flying back and forth for some time," Fredmann said. "If it wasn't for British Airways, we wouldn't be able to produce this."

* * *

Choreographer/ director Michael Pink sat quietly next to Fredmann scrutinizing the final dress rehearsal. "I've seen this so many times, I know where all the mistakes are," he said. "Details, details, details." He leaned forward to his wife, Jayne, whispering directions and corrections. "We have everything from 'the mustache looks ridiculous' to 'move downstage into the light, '" Jayne said leafing through a pad of detailed notes underneath a small glow of a reading light. "This morning I just had a couple notes," one of the lighting technicians noted. "Now I have all these. But it's better to have them now than tomorrow."

Pink is a soft-spoken perfectionist with a unique vision. Dracula, like his previous ballets, combines dance and music with theater. "Everything should be on equal footing," he said. "You should not come out thinking 'I like the lights,' or 'I liked the scenery. ' You should come out thinking, 'wow. '"

* * *

Pink looked like a philosopher during the dress rehearsal, sitting quietly with his hands folded in front of his face with the stage lights reflected in his oval wire-framed glasses. He shared Fredmann's excitement, but demonstrated it in an opposite manner. He sat still -almost introverted Ð lost in his thoughts. During the previous three days, he has seemingly worked the impossible Ð transforming two casts to meet his vision with only four days of stage rehearsals. "Every new production is a development," he said. "I'm pleased in America there is a great support for this. It's a compliment to my work. My wish is to see this company tour to Los Angeles or New York, where it will be met with as much enthusiasm as everywhere else."

Pink asks a lot from the dancers, and they love him for it. "This is an extra challenge, and it's a welcome challenge," said Zhuang Hua, who stars as Dracula in one of the two casts for the production. "All good performances are." Zhuang, a guest of the Colorado Ballet from China, said for him, the theater concept is even more challenging because of the different philosophies between Asian theater and ballet and its European counterparts. "Chinese performances are a little remiss about being character driven," he said. "All Asian performances take a long time to assimilate this type of request."

Sasha Kozadayev, who plays the role of Jonathan in the same cast, agrees Dracula is perhaps the most difficult role he has performed. "I think everyone likes a challenge," he flatly stated while meticulously adjusting his stage mustache. "It requires a lot more acting than we're used to. The performance is very dark Ð not a usual thing in dance theater. Michael knows what he wants and he's very direct about it." In Pink's detail oriented mind, the back up dancers carry equal weight with the primary dancers. "We're the ones who set the scenes for the primaries," said dancer Katherine Gordon. "Michael has invested in us the same time and energy as the principles. That's what made this so special."

Pink was born in York, England where, in his youth, he performed on professional stage in plays, musicals and pantomimes. He trained as a classical dancer at the Royal Ballet School and performed in several productions at the Royal Opera House. In 1975, Pink joined the London Festival Ballet ... now the English National Ballet. "I'm the bad boy of ballet," he said. "Having been a dancer for so many years, I felt there was something missing." What Pink found missing was a sense of character in the ballet. "It wasn't built into the production," he said. "It's a different emphasis," Pink said of his choreographic style. "It's an emphasis on dramatic ballet. It's not showcasing the steps, it's emphasizing the style. It's tying to find movement that will tell a story. When we go to the theater, we expect that. I think it's important we do that in dance. The other productions I've done are about facilitating that idea." The first work Pink choreographed was a short piece titled 1914, which was based off ten minutes in a woman's life when she received a "black telegram" informing her of her husband's death in the First World War. "For many years, I didn't do anything," he said. "I didn't choreograph a step. Suddenly, the opportunity came along." In 1998, Pink choreographed his first full-length production, The Amazing Adventures of Don Quixote, prior to joining the Northern Ballet as associate artistic director. Pink choreographed Dracula based on Bram Stoker's horror novel in 1996 with his friend, composer Philip Feeney.

* * *

The ballet begins with a prologue in Jonathan Harker's bedroom, where he is haunted with delirious visions of Transylvania. Act One begins as Mina and Doctor Van Helsing accompany Harker to a train station, where Harker begins his journey to Transylvania to conclude the Count's property purchases in England. Police escort Renfield, a mental patent, through the station. Chaos erupts. In Transylvania, villagers enact a bloody ritual All Soul's Night sacrifice to protect their town. Dracula's coachman interrupts their ceremony as Harker arrives and, ignoring a village woman's desperate pleas, proceeds to Dracula's castle. An uneasy Harker waits for the count, who gracefully glides down a cold stairway. Dracula makes Harker comfortable then disappears into the night as Harker faces a terrifying night.

Back in England, Act Two begins at the Winter Garden at the Grand Hotel in Whitby. Mina's friend Lucy dances with her two suitors, while, unbeknownst to them, a Russian ship approaches harbor with its demonic passenger. A violent storm overwhelms the dance as Dracula appears on the terrace. Lucy is drawn to him. As the storm returns, Dracula disappears, and the hotel guests find Lucy dazed and unconscious. The scene then moves to a sanatorium, where Van Helsing notices strange puncture wounds on Lucy's neck. Despite the doctor's precautionary measures of surrounding Lucy with garlic, Dracula returns for a second visit. The third act begins with Mina in the sanatorium, where Renfield attacks Van Helsing before being overpowered by two wardens. Mina tries to comfort Renfield, as she begins to understand the fate of her friend Lucy.

The men fail in their attempt to find Dracula, but later that night, as Jonathan sleeps, the count enters Mina's room. Van Helsing discovers them as Dracula suckles Mina with his blood, dripping from his chest. Dracula escapes, taking Mina with him. Dracula celebrates his union with Mina in a vault underneath Cafax Abbey as the undead dance, celebrating their master. Dracula sacrifices Renfield before the vaults door explodes open, flooding the dark celebration with daylight. Dracula can withstand the light, but his power is diminished. The men pursue him and drive a steak through his heart.

* * *

"Dracula is the all-time anti-romantic hero," Pink said. "It's something we were talking about for a long time in my theater company in England. "We opened the ballet with the centennial of the publication of the book." The ballet has been performed in front of sell-out audiences in England, New Zealand, Austria and Norway. "Nothing in the arts world comes with a guarantee," Pink said. "If you get one in your lifetime, you have to feel you're being successful."

One of the most powerful elements to the ballet is Feeney's score, which was written specifically for the ballet. "Philip was at the piano as I was writing the steps," Pink said. "It's a very complex score. It's not conventional orchestration by any stretch. He sets a huge challenge for the musicians. They work just as hard as anyone else. By the time they finish playing their 21 shows here, they'll feel it." Pink and Feeney began working together in 1987, when the two collaborated Memoire Imaginaire for the Northern Ballet. The two went on to produce Strange Meeting, Danse Classique and The Hunchback of Notre Dame. "Philip is a wonderful pianist for dance, as well as being a wonderful composer," Pink said.

Feeney sat in front of Pink, leafing through a copy of the score as Fredmann, Pink and their staff huddled together silently whispering details of the third act. Feeney said he feels Dracula is one of the best collaborations the two have produced. "I feel there's something extraordinary about the subject, and I feel fortunate to write the music for Dracula," Feeney said. "It's a godsend to ballet. You couldn't really do it as an opera, for instance. You can't have Dracula singing."

One of the biggest challenges Feeney faced in writing the score for Dracula was making a small orchestra sound larger than life, to complement the scope of the ballet. "My job is to make those 25 musicians sound like 150," he said. "They don't stop playing. The orchestra has done an exceptional job."

The curtain fell on the final act and the guest audience, a group of teachers and educators from around the state erupt in applause. Pink stood up. He looked like he had finished running a marathon. A woman approached him, and excitedly proclaimed her love for the ballet. Pink smiled, patently listening to her. Pink walked on stage, joined by his wife and Feeney to make final adjustments with the dancers. In 22 hours, Dracula will have it's opening night in Denver. "Just come with a healthy imagination," Pink said, "and let me do the rest."

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