Much like the “Nutcracker,” a Christmas standard in the ballet world, productions of Dracula are becoming an annual staple tied to the Halloween season for more than a few dance companies. Ballet West, Milwaukee Ballet, BalletMet and Atlantic City Ballet, among others, have all have created story ballets based on Bram Stoker’s gothic novel and related vampire lore.

In 2023, just after the Sarasota Cuban Ballet School had taken its first steps toward launching a professional company, it produced its first original version of the tale, choreographed by Rolando Yanes, master teacher and associate director of what is now called the Sarasota Cuban Ballet Studio Company, and his wife, Monica Isles, who serves as ballet mistress. It was (excuse the pun) a skeletal version of the vampire tale that the company has brought back every autumn since, each year slightly modified and amplified.

This year’s iteration features the addition of a prologue and several new variations tailored to feature the company’s strong male dancers. Even with the company roster now expanded to eight dancers, four apprentices and two guest artists, it was still necessary to draw upon dozens of pre-professional students from the school to fill out the ranks. The effect is not quite the same as a fully professional cast, but thanks to the school’s rigorous training, neither did the students deter from the overall polish of the production.

The action begins with the new prologue, nicely choreographed by company apprentice Isabella Serrano. To the ominous notes of a harpsichord (the music is credited only to “various classical composers”), we are introduced to Dracula (Brian Guerrero); his servant Renfield (Gian Narayassamy); and the three “vampire brides” who do his bidding – Addison Josey (in white), Shelby Hillis (in black) and Serrano (in red). This welcome preface serves to clarify relationships that may have been less clear in previous productions, helps the “brides” appear more seductive than villainous and sets the scene for what is to come.

The first act opens at a train station in London where travelers are preparing to journey to Transylvania for a celebration. Among them are Jonathan Harker (Lee Okuno), a young solicitor traveling to meet the enigmatic Count, and his fiancée, Mina (Evelyn Lyman). Okuno’s charismatic smile and confidence are immediately winning, as is Lyman’s elegant but unpretentious lyricism.

Both here and in the crowd scene in Transylvania that follows, students serving as passengers and villagers exhibit not only a professionalism beyond their years but a most impressive mastery of the mime that is essential to conveying both the story line and their characterizations. It’s not a skill that’s taught often or well enough these days, when the focus for young dancers is often more on technical bravado than storytelling and it is welcome to see its emphasis in the SCBS curriculum.

The celebration is also an excuse to feature periodic displays of athleticism by four male dancers – Okuna, guest artists Jhostin Jimenez and Harold Mendez and Mateo Daukaus, a preprofessional student. Jimenez’ leaps and Mendez’ turns have by now become anticipated highlights for those familiar with the company and Daukaus, a former SCBS student who has returned after two years of studying at Ballet West, shows the potential to be the taller male dancer the company needs to bolster its ranks.

The crowd scenes, choreographed by SCBS co-founder, Ariel Serrano, threatened to overwhelm the “stage” – which is, in reality, the school’s Marley-floored main studio doctored with some curtained temporary “wings.”  But imagining this all taking place in a larger space with the bells and whistles this production lacks, gives you a sense of the possibilities of where this all could go.

There was little to critique in the dancing or performance skills, even in the youngest students, who seemed to enjoy staying in character and were well rehearsed.  Guerrero, the company’s sole taller male dancer, who at times has appeared less than comfortable previously cast in princely, classical roles, was well-suited for the more remote, mysterious and foreboding persona of Dracula. Lyman, who has a nuanced artistry to match her impeccable technique, is always a pleasure to watch and Sofia Johnson as Lucy, Mina’s best friend, is convincingly curious, impetuous and a little foolhardy. She also has a lovely, long neck …  which, during a passionate pas de deux with the Count in a cemetery, leads to an Act I culmination that, vampires being what they are, is not unexpected.

What is unexpected is her immediate reappearance in Act II, looking fit as a fiddle despite the neck chomp. Then the crowd freezes and Mina is drawn into her own dreamy pas de deux with the Count, which seems to come out of nowhere. As the crowd reanimates, Lucy suddenly collapses and is taken to the hospital where we also re-encounter Renfield, now dressed in a striped prisoner’s outfit, who appears to have entirely lost his mental faculties – though there’s been no forewarning of this and we’re not sure why.

Ultimately Lucy, in a blood-stained dress and wearing a dazed expression, joins the “undead,” Dracula’s previous victims. Wearing shredded, gauzy peach dresses, with garish, bloody makeup, they perform choreography that is a cross between that of the Wilis (the ghosts of abandoned young women) in “Giselle” and the zombies from Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.” This leads to a final battle between the living and the “undead” and a standoff between Lucy and Mina over the Count that ends so abruptly, it’s all over before you realize it’s time to clap.

Which leads to the conclusion that, if there are faults in this rendition, they lie not with the dancing or choreography, but with the lack of cohesion and consistent development of the story line. Granted, Stoker’s novel is rather disjointed itself, but transferring it to an artistic form where words are not available to give clarity means there may need to be some streamlining or amplifying to create a plot that makes more sense.

Also, there’s no question that a fuller staging with period sets, dramatic lighting and expanded props – something that simply isn’t economically feasible for this fledgling company at this stage – would bolster the continuity and impact throughout. But so would a more gradual building of the individual characters, to increase the believability of their relationships, strengthen the plot and ensure the audience’s further engagement.

That’s something that’s imminently do-able even without a bigger budget. The potential of this production is evident and the talent to fill out its cast clearly available, so one can only hope the company will continue to refine and remedy some of the disconnections that leave audiences scrambling for explanation in the program synopsis. It’s an annual tradition that’s worth preserving.