Revamped Cleveland Ballet presenting 'Dracula & The Masque of the Red Death'

Oct. 11—You can't blame the folks at Cleveland Ballet if they're ready for a Halloween party as it launches its 2024-25 season with "Dracula & The Masque of the Red Death" Oct. 18 and 19 at Playhouse Square.

When we last focused on Cleveland Ballet, in April 2023, then-Artistic Director Gladisa Guadalupe talked in an interview about the organization being like a family and that "tough love" sometimes was needed when dealing with family members.

Allegedly, what went on behind the scenes at the organization went well beyond tough love.

In November, the organization — formed in 2014, with performances beginning in fall 2015 — announced it had "engaged experienced outside counsel to conduct an independent investigation of serious workplace allegations" and suspended Guadalupe and her husband, President and CEO Michael Krasnyansky.

The findings of that investigation, announced in January, included that Cleveland Ballet leadership engaged in "a pattern of intimidation and retaliation against dancers and staff, numerous reports of sexual misconduct on the part of the former CEO, a toxic work culture, serious operational and financial irregularities, and unauthorized self-dealing."

The Cleveland Ballet Board of Directors parted ways with Krasnyansky and Guadalupe.

This was all as the annual production of "The Nutcracker" was fast approaching in December. Timour Bourtasenkov — a choreographer, former lead dancer and co-founder of the Carolina Ballet, who'd accepted the position of director of repertoire with Cleveland Ballet in 2022 — stepped in as interim artistic director and oversaw that financially important run of holiday-season performances.

By spring, Bourtasenkov had seen the "interim" tag removed from his title, and Larry Goodman, a longtime board member who'd stepped in to lead the organization, was named president and CEO.

The season was to have closed in late April with "Aurora: A Sleeping Beauty Story," but that finale became "Sleeping Beauty" along the way.

In a recent joint interview with Bourtasenkov, Goodman says his initially tumultuous time leading Cleveland Ballet has been illuminating, to say the least.

"It was very eye-opening to learn just how different the day-to-day was from what the board had been led to believe," he says.

For starters, there was the "financial disarray," he says.

"I was the finance chair, and I didn't know what was going on," Goodman says, suggesting facts were hidden from the board.

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"Company morale" was the other major issue.

"People had been mistreated for so long," he says. "It's sort of like in those cop movies, when you see a shivering woman in the cop station and somebody comes up and puts a blanket around her and gets her something hot to drink — she's not OK right away. It takes a while for her to get around to being able to say what she needs and what was happening.

"I spent the first couple of months really trying to give the company — by that, I mean the dancers, staff, employees — a blanket and some coffee and let them breathe and show them a different way of managing."

That said, producing high-quality performances remains paramount, Bourtasenkov saying his goal is for Cleveland Ballet to be seen as a top-10 company in the country.

"We have to build a repertory from scratch, basically from the very beginning," Bourtasenkov says.

Sounds like it can't all be blankets and cocoa.

"The philosophy is to treat people with respect — and be truthful," Goodman says. "The idea of 'tough love' is that sometimes when you are truthful, it hurts. It hurts, but you are being truthful out of love. 'Tough love' does not mean I hit you and you will get stronger because I hit you. Only a bully would see 'tough love' that way."

He notes this is more difficult for Bourtasenkov than it is for himself, as Goodman isn't responsible for the artistic side of Cleveland Ballet.

"We are still dealing with the broken soul — people still recovering, to be honest, mentally," Bourtasenkov says.

Adds Goodman, "There are — and I mean this term quite clinically — people here who are experiencing PTSD. So for Timour to be truthful and respectful may not feel like (that's) what it is to them. It may actually trigger feelings of the abusive behavior they survived last year."

"Many years," Bourtasenkov adds.

"Many years," Goodman concurs.

For instance, Cleveland Ballet earlier in early October collaborated with members of the Tulsa Ballet and other artists on a production at Playhouse Square of "Strictly Gershwin," and, Goodman says, Bourtasenkov attempted to point to the visitors from Oklahoma as inspiration for his dancers.

"Timour can say to the company, 'Boy, you should really see these Tulsa dancers. They are working so hard. If you think we work hard, look at them,'" Goodman says. "(Some took that as), 'You're not working hard. Look at them — THEY work hard. Why aren't you as good as them?' That's 100 percent not what he said, but the important part is that's what they heard."

And Goodman says Bourtasenkov's impact has been evident from the start.

"Anybody who did see 'Sleeping Beauty,' which is the first production he was in charge of, soup to nuts, you saw a product that hasn't been on stage in Cleveland since 2000," Goodman says. "To get that would be difficult under any circumstances, but then factor in that (at that time) he's dealing with a very fragile and fractured psyche."

After a few months of "decompressing" between seasons, Goodman says, they have endeavored to collaborate with the dancers, aka "artists," on the values of Cleveland Ballet, including transparency and avoiding judgment.

"I think that is the right kind of organic approach, and it's part of forming the vision," Goodman says.

The organization also is working on playing better with others via several planned performances throughout the season in addition to its nearly 20 mainstage performances as a resident company at Playhouse Square. Goodman and Bourtasenkov say the plan is to involve other Northeast Ohio cultural organizations as much as possible.

"It's true that we've done external performances before," Goodman says, 'but they were kind of like those last seven gases on the right side of the periodic table, right? The noble gases — they don't really mix with anyone. And we're being much more collaborative now."

At the mainstage performances of "Dracula & The Masque of the Red Death," the music will be performed by members of the Cleveland Pops Orchestra, conducted by Carl Topilow.

It sounds as if Bourtasenkov didn't have to think long and hard about the type of show he wanted to produce for the fall.

"I'm a newbie to Cleveland, but from what I've seen, Cleveland loves Halloween," he says. "Cleveland loves this part of the (year). And this is my goal: I will build (Halloween-inspired programs in October) going forward.

While "Dracula" is choreographed by the two-time Tony Award-nominated Lynne Taylor-Corbett, whose credits also include movies such as 1984's "Footloose," "The Masque of the Red Death" boasts choreography by Carolina Ballet's founding Artistic Director Robert Weiss. That Carolina Ballet connection shared with Bourtasenkov also helps to explain why Weiss' work was featured in "Sleeping Beauty."

Bourtasenkov describes "Masque" as the more "classical" of the two pieces, with "Dracula" being closer to a work of musical theater.

The next mainstage production will be, of course, "The Nutcracker," running Dec. 12 through 22, Bourtasenkov promises a grander production, with those who've made the show an annual tradition "absolutely" noticing a difference.

"I remember seeing Timour in his office in July obsessing over the new 'Nutcracker" that he's choreographing from scratch," Goodman says.

The season will close with "Romeo & Juliet," also choreographed by Weiss, May 16 and 17.

Returning to the subject of the upcoming show and the idea of a Halloween party, Cleveland Ballet is offering two incarnations of "Dracula in Two Bites," an option to see the show on Oct. 19 and then venture to the nearby Hofbr?uhaus Cleveland for a fun-and-festivities fundraiser. The afternoon party following the matinee performance is geared more toward families, while the evening affair is adult-only, according to a news release, which encourages patrons to wear costumes to both the show and the shindig.

It's one of the ways the ballet is trying to better engage with fans, another being an option to see a performance on what's known as "tech night," which precedes a dress rehearsal.

Time will tell when it comes to Bourtasenkov's top-10 goal. Goodman is keeping it a bit simpler.

"It functions as a vision statement, but it sounds like a slogan: "Cleveland Ballet is Cleveland's ballet," he says. "The more we aspire to be Cleveland's ballet, the more we will fulfill our mission and succeed at reaching our highest purpose."

'Dracula & The Masque of the Red Death'

Presenter: Cleveland Ballet.

Where: Playhouse Square's Mimi Ohio Theatre, 1511 Euclid Ave., Cleveland.

Tickets: $30 to $131.

Info: ClevelandBallet.org, [email protected] or 216-320-9000.

Originally Published: October 11, 2024 at 1:21 p.m.