I am pleased to report that ballet is alive and well here thanks to the efforts of the Central Illinois Ballet and its artistic director, Rebekah von Rathonyi. The company presented “Dracula, Dance on the Dark Side” conceived and choreographed by Ms. von Rathonyi who selected music by Orff, Dvorak, Mussorgsky, Bach and many others to fashion a work that ran about an hour and fifteen minutes and was performed without intermission at ICC. The story by Bram Stoker, who was the personal secretary of the great nineteenth century tragedian Sir Henry Irving, is a romantic gothic horror melodrama and, as such, very theatrical. Ms. von Rathonyi has made the most of that in her dance adaptation. The story is yet another example of the fact that sex and violence sells, and this adaptation delivers on that, but also rises to the lyrical and romantic. The production values of costume, lighting and sound were effective.

The muscular bare torso of Malachi Squires in the title role is enough to make any chaste English maid swoon. His dancing was by turns athletic and lyrical. His strength made his partnering lifts look effortless. The threatening strength of the character was further explored in the dance in which he threw, dragged and kicked Jonathan, well danced by Richard Smith, about the stage to music by Krzysztof Penderechi and Wojciech Klar. That sequence also gave the audience a flawless dance of seduction, passion and, because it is Dracula, violence, by the three brides of Dracula well danced by Faith Martin, Katie Phillippe and Jessica Smith. The finale of the sequence was Renfield’s flying, whirling dance to music by Shostakovitch that saved Jonathan from a very kinky Transylvanian death. Adam Kittleberger, appearing courtesy of the Rochester City Ballet, danced what can only be described as a role that dancers lie awake at night dreaming about. Costumed in striped motley Mr. Kittleberger was a joy to watch and rightly received a “bravo!” at the curtain call.

The adaptation featured about: thirteen separate composers, ten principal characters, a corps of asylum inmates, Transylvanians, English party guests and various settings, all done in an appropriate style of dancing and staging using olio scenes and traditional balletic pantomime. Ballet dancers are illusionists, spending years of disciplined work in class, at the barre, in rehearsals, all so their strength, balance and leaps look effortless. Dedication is displayed through their lean bodies used to achieve the elegant balletic line, and is testament to all the bread and ice cream they forego. As I said it is an ambitious original work and generously supported by the Par-A-Dice, so if you frequent the boat you too are a patron of the arts. Next up for the company will be “The Nutcracker” at ICC for two performances on Dec. 5. The box office number is 694-5136.

Travis Olson, half of the O2C Design team, directed “The Addams Family” at Peoria Players. The witty musical is based on characters from the popular ’60s sitcom, the plot is straight out of “La Cage Aux Folles” with children from different family backgrounds in love and all the fun that ensues during the get acquainted dinner for the two families. Broadway musicals have certain short-hand expression and in this case it follows that the Addams are progressive, tolerant New Yorkers and the boy’s family are uptight, repressed conservatives from Ohio. New Yorkers think anyplace west of the Hudson River is provincial and Ohio is as good a place as any to represent that. I enjoyed the topical references and insouciance of the show and it was indeed refreshing to hear jokes that are of the moment in their sensibility. George Maxedon and Michelle Rouland were well cast as Gomez and Morticia Addams as were Clifford Clark and Kelleen Nitsch as the Ohioans. The young couple was well played by Madison Boedecker and Adam Raso.

One of the most delightful moments of the evening was when Uncle Fester, well played by Josh Shepherd, sang a love song to the moon while dancing with it in his hands (a la Charlie Chaplin in “The Great Dictator,” with Chaplin it was a parody of Hitler and the earth was the object of his affection). The Moon then floated out into the house above the heads of the audience. That is the kind of effect one just does not get at the cinema . . . 3-D or not. Mr. Olson was able to procure the set used in Chicago’s Mercury Theatre production and thanks to the help of local movers, Two Men And a Truck, and Pete Pasquel of the George Pasquel Company for storage, he was able to transport and store the evocative set. Mr. Pasquel has helped local theater productions when restaurant settings are used and has dressed the set for two productions of William Inge’s “Bus Stop” over the years.