There will be 'Blood'

From top, Tara Lally and Jessica Tretter star in Rochester City Ballet's "The Blood Countess." (Credit: Tim Leverett)

When patrons of the Rochester City Ballet started clamoring for a vampire-themed production a few years ago, the company’s artistic director, Jamey Leverett, began researching ballet adaptations of Dracula.

She quickly discovered that they would require a large number of male leads, and the RCB has few male dancers.

A subsequent Google search for “female vampires” yielded hits about the legend of Elizabeth Báthory, a Hungarian countess born in 1560 who is known as the world’s first female vampire and its most notorious female serial killer.

The folklore is that Báthory bathed in the blood of her victims — young, virginal women — to maintain her own youth and beauty, hence her nickname, “Blood Countess.”

From Friday to Sunday, May 20 to 22, the Rochester City Ballet will premiere Leverett’s original work The Blood Countess at Nazareth College Arts Center in Pittsford. Recently we chatted with Leverett and several members of the production team to go over the show, by the numbers:

650: The number of women alleged to have been tortured and killed by Báthory and her accomplices between 1585 and 1610.

332: The number of lights in the show. In addition to four spotlights, intelligent moving lights — which eliminate the need for someone to run a light board — will be used for the first time in RCB’s history. “The lighting for this show is much closer to a musical theater production than a traditional ballet,” says lighting designer Gordon Estey, who has worked with the RCB since 1971.

49: The number of unique costumes in the show, each handmade by costumer Yuanting Zhao and her assistants. “We spent about 10 hours on each costume,” Zhao says. “And because many of the cast members change characters, we used decorative, period-appropriate buttons and hook-and-eye closures to disguise heavy-duty zippers for quick changes.”

28: The number of hours per week the cast is rehearsing. Add to that several mandatory two-hour technique and strength classes prior to weekday rehearsals, and the dancers fulfill a 34-hour weekly commitment.

23: The number of dancers in the cast, including Jessica Tretter, who plays a virgin peasant girl who is murdered and returns as a ghost. Tretter, 26, has been dancing with RCB for the past three seasons but says The Blood Countess is a new kind of show. “There’s more acting,” she says. “That’s cool, because usually we don’t get to delve into character development as much with a ballet.”

15: The number of wigs worn in the show. Tretter, who dons a long, ash-colored wig for her ghost character, says that wearing a wig while dancing is “kind of like wearing a thick hat, and we always start wearing it early so we get used to the feeling. But a wig is fun because you don’t have to worry about what you’re doing with your hair.”

3: The number of chances you’ll have to see this particular production. After performances wrap up at Nazareth, the show will be booked in other cities in hopes of securing a tour next year. Leverett also plans to  reprise The Blood Countess for future RCB seasons.

2: The number of years that Leverett, RCB’s artistic director since 2003, has been working on The Blood Countess — from conception, research and writing to selecting the music (Shostakovich’s String Quartets), hiring a production team, developing the choreography, casting the dancers and rehearsing.

1: The number of dancers cast in the lead role. RCB veteran Tara Lally was tapped to play the Blood Countess.

0: The number of tutus in the production. “When people think ballet, they think tutus for some reason,” Leverett says. “You won’t find those in this show.”