Spellbound to Dracula

Choreographer Michael Pink's Dracula requires as much acting as balletic flair from its dancers.

Fifteen months ago, Royal New Zealand Ballet dancer Natasha Purcell quit. "I don't know if it was burn-out or whether I just had enough," she says.

At 29 years of age, she was closing the door on a quarter of a century devoted to dance and "to a world that just absorbs you totally".

For 14 months she revelled in her new life in Napier, with a job in retail she loves, and close to the family she had to leave when she was 16. She describes her Napier life as "no stress, easy, a complete change and just what I needed".

Then Dracula, Michael Pink's stunning piece of Gothic dance theatre, returned. And Purcell, who had not been tempted by previous invitations from the RNZB to rejoin or guest with the company, fell under his spell.

It happened quickly. The phone call came on Wednesday. By Friday, Purcell returned to Wellington, in leotards and tights, back into the routine of daily class, full-on rehearsals - and an intense programme of physiotherapy, Pilates and private lessons with ballet mistress Turid Revfiem, to get her back to tip-toe perfection in the leading female role of Mina Harker.

There was little more than a month from her first rehearsal, to opening night.

Dracula was a smash hit with New Zealand audiences in 2000 when Purcell danced the Mina Harker role. It requires as much acting of its dancers as it does balletic flair and technique. Pink points out it is a work "to get your teeth into".

It has also been a challenge to the RNZB's new crop of young dancers, who have joined the company since the last Dracula season, making Purcell's experience even more valuable.

"I love the acting side," says Purcell, who has always danced like a beautiful angel. "It is not the superficial mime you get in the old, classical ballets.

"You really have to tell the story and the way Michael Pink does his ballets [the RNZB has also performed Pink's Hunchback of Notre Dame] you have a lot of freedom to create the role around you, to make it your own. Nothing is better than that for any artist.

"Technically it might not be as huge as the principal Swan Lake role but this is what I feel most passionate about," she says.

Purcell was pleased at the ease with which she slipped back into ballet mode. Company colleagues were amazed at her level of performance, as if she had had no break.

"There were a couple of instances - the day I first got back into pointe shoes was one - when I felt this electricity surging through my body, like old engines were firing up again. I was just dancing around and around. I had to pull back."

There was a price to pay for the pointe shoes episode. After two weeks her feet were extremely painful and the podiatrist was called. Two weeks later her second toes were black but pain-free.

By opening night, in Wellington's St James Theatre, Purcell was ready for the task, and audience reaction and the next day's review bore witness to her success.

"I didn't do anything at all for 14 months," she says. "I was just resting my body. My programme has been perfect, it was paced really well. I think my focus on this role has been even stronger than it ever was before. I am doing all right."

So does it mean an end to retirement? Absolutely not, according to Purcell. "A dancer's life is totally organised and totally compelling. You don't have a normal life. Everything else is put aside: no weekend brunch with family, no time with friends outside that little dance world.

"I was 29 and I didn't really know how to handle my own money. I have been very lucky to have this last opportunity. It is wonderful. But now my heart is somewhere else. I have a new life and I love it."

* Natasha Purcell will share the role of Mina Harker with company dancer Kate Venables. The role of Dracula is danced alternately by Douglas McCubbin, Craig Lord and Qi Huan. Watch also for exuberant young dancer Lucy Balfour as Lucy Westenra.

* Dracula, with the Royal New Zealand Ballet is at The Civic, August 17-21