Mark Bruce Company's DRACULA Announces 2014 UK Tour Dates

In 2013 Mark Bruce Company toured its darkly thrilling, critically acclaimed dance-theatre production DRACULA which won the company the prestigious South Bank Award for Dance. Including a four-week sellout run at London's glorious Victorian venue, Wilton's Music Hall, DRACULA also played to capacity audiences and universally excellent notices around the country.

In September the company embarks on an extensive UK tour that will take DRACULA to new venues and audiences. "It's great to be going on the road with Dracula again and I'm delighted to be responding to overwhelming public demand so that we can visit lots of venues around the country that we didn't have chance to visit last year," says director, choreographer and artistic director Mark Bruce. "We've got a really strong cast which includes many of the original members, and I'm very much looking forward to sharing it with new audiences."

The company of ten exceptional dancers bring Bram Stoker's 1897 haunting, erotic tale to life in a heart wrenching, magical dance theatre production. With an eclectic mix of music from Bach and Mozart to contemporary classical composers György Ligeti (fittingly, born in Transylvania) and Fred Frith, Bruce explores choreographic styles which range from the subtlety of classical etiquette to visceral contemporary dance.

One of the UK's most highly regarded performers, Jonathan Goddard, plays the Vampire Count, whose sinister ambitions challenge the very fabric of Victorian society. As Dracula's victims and opponents rally against him, they are forced to face the darkness and savagery within themselves. "Before thinking about Jonathan Goddard playing the role," continues Mark, "I hadn't decided if I wanted to use an actor or a dancer. The idea of a 'dancing' Dracula is tricky, but when I worked with Jonathan I found all kinds of possibilities for choreographic vocabulary; he brings many sides to the role: the hunter, the wolf, the noble and sinister count, the lonely undead, a malevolent humour, a vicious callous streak and a childlike naivety."

2014 tour dates:

September 26th-27th Frome Merlin Theatre

October 1st-4th Bristol Old Vic

October 7th Buxton Opera House

October 10th-11th Manchester Contact Theatre

October 15th-18th Birmingham Patrick Centre

October 21-st-22nd Leicester Curve Theatre

October 25th Llanelli Ffwrnes Arts Centre

October 30th-Nov 1st Glasgow Tramway

November 5th Winchester Theatre Royal

November 8th North West Wales, Caernarfon Galeri

November 11th Aberystwyth Arts Centre

November 14th-15th Salisbury Playhouse

November 18th Poole Lighthouse

November 22nd Ipswich Jerwood Dance House

November 25th-26th London artsdepot

December 2nd-4th Brighton The Old Market

'Dracula' is presented by Mark Bruce Company in association with Tobacco Factory Theatres, Pavilion Dance South West and Wilton's Music Hall www.markbrucecompany.com

'Dracula' choreography and direction by Mark Bruce; lighting by Guy Hoare; design by Phil Eddolls; sound design by Chris Samuels; costumes by Dorothee Brodrück; puppets and masks by Pickled Image; makeup by Jyn San.

Performers: Nicholas Cass-Beggs, Eleanor Duval, Jonathan Goddard, Nicole Guarino, Grace Jabbari (Company Apprentice), Hannah Kidd, Kristin McGuire, Wayne Parsons, Jordi Calpe Serrates,Joe Walkling

Mark Bruce Company has built up a formidable reputation for critically acclaimed, uncompromising dance-theatre work which often takes the audience on a roller coaster ride into dark and mysterious territory. Productions such as Sea of Bones and 2012's Made In Heaven fascinated and entertained audiences all over the country..."Made in Heaven is a rare dance theatre foray into territory more often explored in film and literature and makes for a truly gripping evening." (londondance)

Mark Bruce Company productions include Moonlight Drive (1991), Lovesick (1995), Helen, Angel (1996), Horse, BlackBird/RedRose (1998), Dive (1999) and the celebrated collaboration with Polly Jean Harvey and John Parish, At Louse Point (1997). In 2005 Mark made Fever to Tell for Probe, Green Apples for the ROH's Clore Studio Summer Collection and Bad History for the Place Prize 2006. Sea of Bones toured in 2007; in 2008 Mark created The Sky or a Bird for Probe's UK tour and Stars for Dance South West's Rural Tour. He also co-devised Skellig, an opera based on the book by David Almond, for the Sage Gateshead. Bruce's Crimes of Passion, commissioned by Bern Ballet, premiered in January 2010 and the Mark Bruce Company premiered Love and War at the Tobacco Factory Theatre in 2010; Medea, Mark's second piece for Bern Ballet, premiered in February 2011 and the Mark Bruce Company production Made In Heaven toured to excellent critical acclaim and capacity audiences in 2012.

Mark's theatre work includes Manchester Royal Exchange productions of The Bacchae, Antigone, The Glass Menagerie, The Revenger's Tragedy, Antony & Cleopatra, Peer Gynt, As You Like It, Fast Food, Still Time and The Way of the World. He directed Rick Bland's Thick for the Edinburgh Fringe and in Canada and New York. The Mark Bruce Company is Associate Dance Artist of the Tobacco Factory Theatre, Bristol and an Affiliated Artist of the Merlin Theatre, Frome.

Photo by Colin Hawkins

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