THE VAMPIRE DANCE.

Auckland Star, Volume XLI, Issue 31, 5 February 1910, Page 15

THE VAMPIRE DANCE.

The Vampire Dance, which broke oat In London at two places in one week, is less a dancing enbertalnineiit than a gruesome Interlude. It depends for effect on its sensationalism. Aβ given at the Hippodrome by Miss Alice Bis and Mr Bert French, who bave tried it in. America with some success, the man is first seen.on a heavily-draped atage bending- over a crlmeon - rose. Thiea a red light, Increasing every moment In brilliancy, Is made to gradually disclose the presence of a sleeping beauty. The music plays a dreamy waits, end slowly she awakens, and, rising, passes over to where the man stands. We see the youth, struggling uga-inst her fascinations, and finally Irresistibly carried away. Then e(he bends over, and her gleaming white teeth touch tie throat, the man fall-. ing in death agonies. A,t the Tivoli th« Vampire dance has the same denouement, but Is differently managed. Mr Tom Terriss Is here the young! painter, who, like St Anthony of old, is tempted to look up from a. painting at ATi«m Mildred Deverea, an hour! Iα transparent draperies. There Is the clever stage trick of « man la the distance singing: A tool there was, and he made his prayer. Even as you and I; To a rag and a bone and a hank of hair, The fool be called her his ixdy fair. As the melody grows fainter and fainter, the dance of the temptress grows more sensuous and wilder. The man struggles to keep his eyes on his painting—the temptation Iβ very dramatically suggested by Mr Terries—bnt, of course, he yields In the emd and presses his lips to hers in pasefonate adoration. Then we see her gradually force his head back In a chilling blaze of green light for the final foorror of the fatal bite.