The Un/Dead and Un/Forgiven
Montana Ballet Company opens its 2026–27 performance season with a haunting invitation: spend Halloween weekend exploring ballet’s darker side. Un/Dead & Un/Forgiven takes the stage at The Ellen Theatre in Bozeman on October 30 and 31, 2026.
The program brings together a world premiere, a legendary vampire and one of classical ballet’s most moving ghost stories. Meanwhile, special guests from the Montana Raptor Conservation Center add another memorable encounter in the lobby.
A world premiere takes flight
Choreographer Sasha Janes introduces The Raven, inspired by Edgar Allan Poe’s famous poem. Through movement and music, the new ballet explores grief, memory and the consuming struggle to let go.
Janes serves as Professor of Music in Ballet at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music and Artistic Director of Chautauqua Dance. His bold new interpretation examines how an obsessive attachment to memory can distort reality, bringing Poe’s unsettling themes into a new artistic form.
Vampires, spirits and enduring love
Next, Dracula draws audiences into the sinister world of Bram Stoker’s classic novel. This excerpt follows the vampire and his brides as they seduce and torment their victims. It also includes Dracula’s fateful encounter with Lucy.
Dramatic choreography, eerie music and atmospheric lighting evoke Transylvania and Victorian England. Together, these elements capture the story’s supernatural danger and seductive power.
In contrast, Act II of Giselle pairs ghostly beauty with forgiveness. After heartbreak, Giselle returns among the Wilis, spirits of women betrayed before their wedding days.
When her former lover, Albrecht, encounters these vengeful spirits, he faces a deadly fate. However, Giselle’s enduring love ultimately saves him. Ethereal choreography gives this beloved ballet its emotional force.
Plan your Halloween ballet evening
Artistic Director Melissa Bowman describes the season opener as a chance to experience ballet’s power to transport audiences into beautiful, unsettling worlds.
Before the performance, meet lobby ambassadors Pilgrim the Turkey Vulture and Bu the Great Horned Owl from the Montana Raptor Conservation Center.
For an atmospheric Halloween outing, join Montana Ballet Company at The Ellen Theatre. Un/Dead & Un/Forgiven begins at 7 p.m. on both October 30 and 31.