WDDE sits down with composer and musician Shaun Dougherty.
WDDE sits down with composer and musician Shaun Dougherty.
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Forget the chocolate and flowers this Valentine’s Day. The rush of brooding love can be all yours when First State Ballet Theatre presents the world premiere of its first vampire-themed ballet, “Irene.”
“It’s all about love and romance and loss and happiness and sadness,” said Shaun Dougherty, a local jazz guitarist who wrote the story and composed the music for the ballet. “It’s really about life.”
“Irene” is the story of a young, naïve dancer who lands a dream job with a major ballet company. She moves to the big city and thinks everything is going well until she discovers that everyone around her is a vampire and they’re looking to her to provide food for the coven.
Dougherty got the idea for the story and the music a couple of years ago when he happened upon a chord while working on some music at his Trolley Square home. “There was this one chord—literally—that was so incredibly dark and dissonant that there was no use for it,” he said. “But I thought it was so beautiful that I was going to use it for something.”
As fate would have it, that discovery coincided with the arrival of Hurricane Irene and an association between chord and storm clicked in Dougherty’s mind. “Everybody was freaking out but I just thought (the storm) was beautiful and somehow I associated it with the chord and just started writing this music,” he said.
Unlike other contemporary ballets, which rely on established rock songs, “Irene” boasts an original score composed entirely by Dougherty. The orchestra consists of electric guitar—played by Dougherty—strings and a prominently featured rhythm section. “Every human on earth responds to rhythm and this is going to get their attention,” said Dougherty.
Coming up with the theme wasn’t quite as much of a stretch for Dougherty who says he’s always been fascinated by vampires. He’s read all of the Anne Rice novels and even met her once at a book signing. And while he wasn’t directly influenced by the success of the Twilight series, he does admit he considered the commercial appeal of a gothic drama in a contemporary setting.
“I did absolutely consider the commercial value of it because the minute you leave your basement or wherever you write or work, you have to consider the audience and I thought it was a fun and exciting thing,” said the 44-year-old Dougherty.
Indeed, the company is hoping that the contemporary gothic storyline will attract a new demographic. “When Shaun first described his idea for an original vampire-themed ballet, I saw immediately that teens through 30-somethings would be attracted by its edgy, sophisticated urban vibe, said FSBT executive director Robert Grenfell. “In fact, last season we previewed an ‘Irene’ excerpt and our audience of pre-teens to seniors absolutely loved it.”
Choreographer Alex Buckner is just as enthusiastic about the project. “I’m kind of a horror movie buff,” he said. “I love my horror movies and all that gruesome stuff, so it was right up my alley.”
Still, he admits, working out the movements was a bit of a challenge. “Adapting to the music was one of the hardest things because it’s something out of (Dougherty’s) mind and it goes all over the place sometimes and trying to figure out which movements should go with each of these different changes can be a challenge,” he said. “It’s an original story we’re trying to tell and making that all come across and readable from the audience’s perspective can be challenging as well.”
Fleshing out the characters was equally challenging. “This is edgier than a classical ballet,” said Buckner. “Not only movement-wise but it’s slightly sexual with their being vampires, so we’ll see that as well.”
Audiences might even get a taste of the Vegas strip. Dougherty spent seven years in The Gambling Capital of the World and discovered that Buckner had gone to school there.
“We both have Vegas so we bring a little bit of The Strip in,” he said. “There are a couple of things in the show but we can’t tell what they are so you’ll have to be there.”
The dancers find that performing an original work can be both exciting and challenging. “When you’re doing something that’s been done before, you have something to go on, so more time is spent on finessing the details and perfecting steps, said Emily Shenaut, who dances the title character “Irene.” “When you’re creating something from scratch, it’s more about getting it out there and there’s more left up to you as the dancer to fine-tune the details—to make it your own rather than to mimic something else.”
Jake Nowicki welcomes the opportunity to dance in a contemporary ballet but says it’s a far different experience from performing a classical work. “Sometimes the music can change very rapidly whereas in a classical ballet, it might be very slowed-down, a very constant tempo,” said the 20-year-old who dances “Jack,” a vampire who pursues “Irene.” “The story is also very back-and-forth; it’s more ‘out there’ like today’s society and so are the tempi and that can be a challenge to the dancers.”
He also says tapping into his “dark side” can be a very cathartic experience. “I find that it’s awesome because when I go home at night, I’m a much nicer person than if I weren’t playing an evil person during the day,” he said. “I can put my dark energy toward art and something wonderful and beautiful rather than going home and screaming at someone in my car.”
That has Emily Shenaut, the one “innocent” in the ballet, feeling a little left out. “I’m a little jealous. They’re having fun,” said the 26-year-old California native. “It’s probably easier for me because it’s more of what I’m used to. It’s easier to play a non-vampire than to have to get a little more ‘dark.’”
Now just a week from the show's debut, Dougherty is anxious to see what kind of reception “Irene” receives. “I’d like to see this become a hit that every high school in America wants to license and perform,” he said. “We would like to perform it somewhere else, but there are just millions of details.”
And Dougherty says he’d like to compose another full-length work and that it will be a ballet for FSBT. “Ballet is just awesome,” he said. “It’s instrumental but you have this massive interaction with people. It’s just pure beauty.”
This piece is made possible, in part, by a grant from the Delaware Division of the Arts, a state agency dedicated to nurturing and supporting the arts in Delaware, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts.