Zacharie Dun must be the most agile Frankenstein monster in history.Alberta Ballet artistic director Jean Grand-Maître, taking his cue from Oscar-winning director Guillermo del Toro , has created a Frankenstein that is a sinewy, lizardy and amphibious kind of monster who, when he comes to life, is ignited through his legs.
The plot revolves around a wealthy Florida family with a seriously ill mother and a loving son who turns to science and lands at Harvard, hoping to find a way to bring the dead back to life. McKinlay here is almost manic as Dr. Victor Frankenstein, dancing in a lab coat and office wardrobe, turning the intellectual act of creation, with all of its fits and starts, fails and triumphs, into a kind of physical language of frustration.
Frankenstein feels like it is an homage to vintage classic Hollywood movies of the 1940s, and it is all too relevant to now.is a story ballet, with a lot of narrative points to hit, and that’s a challenging assignment for a choreographer – and audience – to have to plow through, in order to get to the next gorgeous, moonlit monster showdown.