Blending color, original music and a new, yet familiar, story, “The Legend of Mothman” ballet swept audiences away during its world premiere on October 23rd and 24th.
Created by Deborah Novak and performed by the Charleston Ballet, with choreography by K.R. Pauley, this new ballet was so in-demand that each showing sold out at the Culture Center Theater in Charleston, WV.
Since the idea for a Mothman-inspired ballet was sparked, it’s been about 10 years in the making, according to Deborah, ballet teacher at Ohio University. She said it was only fitting it should be performed by the Charleston Ballet.
“We feel that the state ballet of West Virginia should do some West Virginia stories, and here we have it,” she said.
Deborah recruited the help of longtime friends and collaborators Mike and Carol DelGrosso from Ohio State University’s Advanced Computing Center for the Arts and Design (ACCAD) for graphics and hands-on effects. The team used ACCAD’s motion-capture technology to record and project a live dancer’s movements to create the special Mothman effects.
“The combination of videography, choreography, digital compositing and imagination is what culminated in the Mothman,” Mike said. “I think it really turned into something quite substantial for this piece because it brought together storytelling, creativity and dance from afar.”
Lukas Pringle, a professional ballet dancer from the Dayton Ballet Company, wore sensors to capture the data and was directed in-person by Deborah and K.R..
“It’s a combination of dance and the digital world into an artistic expression,” Novak said. “It’s a total collaboration. This one really doesn’t have an auteur.”
With a cast of nearly 30, ranging from townspeople to mysterious men-in-black, “The Legend of Mothman” also featured an original score by legendary Charleston-based composer Matthew Jackfert (see YNST Issue 11).
Deborah said she hoped audiences were enveloped with the combination of imagery, dancing and music as the ballet captures the emotional aspect of the Mothman myth.
“We have a unique take on the storyline, and it centers on the people and what the feeling was like for those involved,” she said. “I believe in my heart that ballet is not very good at plot points — ballet is excellent at emotional states, and that’s what I found in the Mothman story.”
“Mention Mothman to anybody; they’ll react in some way,” she continued. “It affects people. I don’t know why that is, but I know it exists. So you take that emotional state and move it into some kind of movement, and that’s where ballet is really good.”
Here’s my review: “The Legend of Mothman” features three preliminary pieces to open the performance, each with a haunting, unearthly quality.
The first dance, “Poltergeist,” is gauzy and almost whimsical, with the music at times playful and frenzied. Next is “Chicos on the Stage,” employing a brilliant use of bold color and Cuban influences, bringing in special guests from the Sarasota Cuban Ballet Studio Company.
Finally, we have “Danse Macabre,” a ghostly dance with death. This is the most Halloween-coded movement so far, with effects enhanced with blacklight. We see skeletons stepping and strutting to a haunting tune played by Death itself in a spooky graveyard.
After these spectral movements, of which “Poltergeist” and “Danse Macabre” are already from Charleston Ballet’s repertoire, we begin “The Legend of Mothman,” which takes place in the 1960s in a “pleasant point” on earth (wink, wink).
Aside from the titular character and his glowing red eyes, the tale is infused with supernatural elements. A fortune teller recounts how a curse was placed on the town, and these Indigenous elements not only add to what’s being told here, but they also tie in real life too, with the story of the Shawnee Chief Cornstalk.
Throughout the ballet, there are groovy, 1960s flourishes; one dance scene celebrating an engagement is straight up funky. There’s a contagious vibrancy not only through the movements but through the characters’ dress that can’t be diminished, even by the mysterious Men in Black…
These MIB, who get their own dance number, are truly who steal the show — perhaps more than Mothman himself.
Though when Mothman finally does materialize, much of his appearance is for a delicate dance with one of our main characters, Sally. In this scene — like all others so far — the music matches perfectly. It’s tender and sweet, though moments before, the notes are frantic and ominous.
Mothman is mesmerizing in his own right. He may not look exactly how he’s been depicted so many times before, but that’s why it works so wonderfully here. As Deborah reiterated, this was a completely original piece.
After a brief foray into a police station, in which the officers refuse to believe our gang of eyewitnesses, and the main characters realize their lives are forever changed, the ballet ends with a montage of news reels and clippings, including real headlines and footage. “The Legend of Mothman” harkens back to the often-conflicting media circus of the 1960s that began in Point Pleasant and spiraled to surrounding regions after multiple Mothman sightings.
Once the curtain comes down and everyone, including Mothman, takes their final bow, a quiet, satisfied energy suffuses the atmosphere.
It’s understandable if some folks may not have been so pleased with the ballet. Changing Mothman’s appearance from what people expected is a creative approach. But does it stray too far from the legend?
Like any piece of art that retells another famous story, it’s perfectly acceptable to have some original or new elements, but the true structure should remain mostly intact. Opinions may differ about if that is the case here, but regardless, it made for an enjoyable, seasonally appropriate night at the theater.
Depending on the Charleston Ballet’s schedule, Deborah said she would love to extend the Mothman ballet and bring it back in the future, and we would enjoy seeing it,.
The Charleston Ballet’s spring season will feature another of Deborah’s creations, “Red Blue,” with music penned by Matt Jackfert and performed on-stage by jazz musician Bob Thompson and Woman’s Song, an all-female chorus in Charleston.
“We’re hoping to have a big production at the end,” Novak said. “We’ve never done anything simple — we think in Cecil B. DeMille terms.”
Feature Image courtesy of Perry Bennett. Additional publicity photos provided.
