Ballet Quad Cities' “Ghost Stories,” October 13 and 14

Friday, October 13, and Saturday, October 14, 7:30 p.m.

The Spotlight Theatre, 1800 Seventh Avenue, Moline IL

In past Octobers over the years, the professional dancers of Ballet Quad Cities have treated audiences to different takes on Dracula, a disco-themed Halloween party, and even, in 2015, an original murder mystery. But the company's fans will be getting an entire smorgasbord of hauntingly beautiful vignettes in this year's Ghost Stories, with the menu for the October 13 and 14 performances at Moline's Spotlight Theatre including werewolves, spirits, a famous horseman without a head, and bewitching women whose own menu consists of human flesh. Yes, it's suitable for kids.

“How we broke it up this year,” says Artistic Director Courtney Lyon about Ballet Quad Cities' latest fall presentation, “was that I would do all the choreography for Act I and Emily Kate [Long] would do the choreography for Act II. She's doing a one-act narrative of the Headless Horseman story and it's kind of in the vein of our Dracula – a narrative story told through ballet. You know, everyone's en pointe and all that, and it's very easy to follow.

“So I felt like, with Act I, what I could do would be to push the envelope a little bit for myself artistically, and it would make a nice contrast for what Act II would be. Because some people really like those straightforward narratives, and I like them, as well. But you know, you've also got ideas in your head, and you want to see if you can get them out and make the concepts real.”

Lyon's concept resulted in the creation of seven short balletic works to precede Headless Horseman, Long's original one-act ballet inspired by Washington Irving's “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.” Included in that Act II tale are dancers Christian Knopp as Ichabod Crane, Jillian Van Cura as Katrina Van Tassel, and Marcus Pei as Brom Bones, with the Sleepy Hollow townspeople portrayed by the rest of the Ballet Quad Cities company: Sahsha Amaut, Eleanor Ambler, Ruby Anderson, Sierra DeYoung, Stephanie Eggers, Madeline Kreszenz, Madeleine Rhode, Kira Roberts, Stephen Scott, Mahalia Zellmer. All of them will also participate in Lyon's Act I closer “Fool Moon Finale,” as well as in the six additional vignettes that help form Ghost Stories' subtitle: Spooky Myths Set to a Musical Medley of Ghostly Tunes.

“Act I goes non-stop,” says Lyon. “I just took a bunch of crazy music and wove it together into its own score, and also put in screams and werewolf howls and graveyard sounds and drums and creepy voices. There'll be blackouts if we have to do a couple of set-piece changes, but the music itself doesn't stop. And because out title is Ghost Stories, I was thinking about … . 'Campfire ghost stories' isn't exactly right, but I wanted stories that you tell that kind of give you the creeps – like the ones you read when you're younger.”

The first act begins with Werewolf in the Graveyard, which Lyon calls “a light, very dancy introduction to the evening. I based that on the werewolf legend that shows up everywhere from the ancient Romans to Harry Potter. And then we go to Jingle Bones, which has this piece of music that I found that isn't even a minute long, and it sounds like … . I always picture, when someone plays a xylophone, something being hit, and in my head I was kind of like, 'Oh my gosh, what if it was someone's bones that were being hit?'

“I don't know how to explain it,” she says of the solo piece for company member Jillian Van Cura. “But the music kind of sounds, to me, like a skeleton jangling about. I totally wanted someone standing on stage kind of deadpan playing [a xylophone], and then a dancer in a spotlight getting knocked around. But then I thought, 'Is that too weird? That might be too weird.' So there's no xylophone player – it's just the dancer in the spotlight. But if you want to know where my brain originally went … !”

Next in the Ghost Stories repertoire is Enchanted Celestial Experience, a piece for featured dancer Mahalia Zellmer (who also performs the '90s-hip-hop-favored solo Retro Boogie before the finale), Ruby Anderson, and Madeline Kreszenz.

“Haley is dressed all in white,” says Lyon, “and it's this costume that has the arms connected to the legs with fabric, so she can make these really cool shapes. She's this kind of spirit, and she's carrying these clear balloons that are filled with lights. And then I have two dancers in the back dressed in black, and they have these balloons that kind of bounce around. So during the whole thing, you're like, 'Am I underwater? Am I in outer space?' It kind of chills you out as you're watching it. It lulls you. It's enchanting. And I also needed to not get too dark or weird, so that one's really nice and heavenly."

“Then we move to Sires of the Sea,” Lyon continues, “which is about those beautiful women who brings sailors to them with their song, put them in a trance, cause them to shipwreck, and then eat them.” With the sirens enacted by Sierra DeYoung, Eleanor Ambler, and Stephanie Eggers, the poor sap who stumbles upon them is danced by Christian Knopp. “That poor kid. He shows up shipwrecked on stage, and he meets all these gorgeous women in tutus, and then they take him in … and then they go after him. It's fun.”

Another familiar spooky tale, meanwhile will precede Retro Boogie and Full Moon Finale before the Ghost Stories intermission: Lyon's balletic take on Edgar Allan Poe's poem “The Raven,” with Marcus Pei as Poe, Christian Knopp as Poe's alter ago, and Sahsha Amaut, Ruby Anderson, Madeline Kreszenz, Madeleine Rhode, Kira Roberts, Jillian Van Cura as a particularly troublesome flock of ravens.

“I have this concept,” Lyon says 10 days before her ballet's opening night on Friday the 13th, “and I'm still trying to see how it's going to work. But right now, I have the man that 'The Raven' is about sitting as his writing desk at the front of the stage with his back to the audience. He's going through a series of movements, and I'm trying to capture the rhythm and cadence of the words of 'The Raven' – that kind of sing-song-y quality. Then ravens start showing up – it's like they're multiplying in his mind.”

And do the birds torment the writer by continually saying “nevermore”?

“No!” Lyon exclaims. “Not yet! But I should do that! I haven't finished it!”

Ballet Quad Cities' Ghost Stories runs at Moline's Spotlight Theatre on October 13 and 14, and admission to the 7:30 p.m. performances is $15-30, with pub tables on the floor available for $70-105. For more information and tickets, call (309)786-3779 and visiting BalletQuadCities.com or the show's EventBrite page.