SALT LAKE CITY — Odyssey Dance Theatre performers make the transformation from beautiful dancers to ghoulish zombies every season in their production of “Thriller.”
And what’s more, they enjoy it.
“It’s really fun to really become that character, … to watch your face transform,” said Amber Morain, who has been performing with Odyssey Dance Theatre for four seasons.
“Thriller,” now in its 21st year, has become a favorite Halloween tradition among Utahns.
The show is a compilation of vignettes featuring dances from popular Halloween monsters, including Frankenstein, mummies, witches and vampires. The opening number of the show is a zombie dance to Michael Jackson’s hit 1982 song “Thriller,” the production’s namesake.
“We pay homage to Michael because he had the idea that zombies have to dance — go figure,” said Derryl Yeager, founder and artistic director of Odyssey Dance Theatre.
The dancers learn from company veterans who have performed “Thriller” in past seasons to put on zombie makeup themselves for the opening number. Morain said it's cool to invent new ways of reflecting through makeup how her character may have died and to see the change from dancer to zombie in the mirror throughout the process.
“I try to find the ugliest lines on my face and accentuate them and think about how I died and how that character is going to come alive when we do ‘Thriller,’” Morain said. “Getting shot, drowning, getting run over — seeing those things visually, putting them on my face, is always really fun because you can create a new character every single night.”
Odyssey Dance Theatre’s “Thriller” was born when Yeager was looking for a show to do around Halloween time but didn’t have the budget for something like a full-length “Dracula.” Someone suggested doing vignettes of different Halloween characters instead, and the response to this idea was amazing, Yeager said.
By its third year, “Thriller” had sold out performances. The show has since become Odyssey Dance Theatre’s equivalent of Ballet West’s “Nutcracker,” according to Yeager, and helps to provide the company's funding throughout the rest of the year.
“It’s really touched a nerve,” Yeager said. “Utah’s really loved the show, and they come back year after year.”
The show has expanded to include two companies of 13 women and six men each and performs in seven locations throughout Utah. Yeager said he thinks what keeps the production's audience coming back year after year is the humor in the show.
“There are some scary elements in the show, but most of it’s really, really funny, and I think that’s the one thing that really makes it unique,” Yeager said.
The show is even enjoyable for men who may not normally enjoy attending dance performances, he said.
“You don’t have to give away your man card to actually go to one of these things, and you can actually impress your date by bringing her,” Yeager said. “Meanwhile, he actually ends up enjoying it too, which is great. To me, that speaks volumes, and it’s something that makes it all worthwhile.”
Most of the major pieces within the current show were in the first production of “Thriller,” choreographed by Yeager and others in the original company.
“It’s crazy it’s survived that long but still works,” Yeager said. “Even though the basics of it are the same, when you’re in a live theater performance, they experience it new every year, and the guys will always come up with something new.”
The challenging routine of “Thriller” requires a great deal of work and talent on the part of the company’s dancers, eight of whom from this year’s group have competed on the popular TV series “So You Think You Can Dance.”
“They’re so multitalented that when they go in to audition for those shows and stuff like that, they stand out immediately,” Yeager said. “That’s kind of the stuff we bring to each show, too, is not only the humor, but also the different styles, and so it’s kind of a smorgasbord.”
Dancer Laura Brick, who is in her fourth year with the company, said one of her favorite things about dancing in “Thriller” is the challenge of finding new ways to perform the numbers she does every night.
“I think I have surprisingly grown a lot as an artist because I think most people would see the confines as being restricting and boring and not fulfilling,” Brick said. “But I think that it pushes me to break out of my shell and my vulnerabilities and create new choices that I didn’t think were there my first year.”
Dancer Jordan Hamilton, who is performing in “Thriller” this season for her fifth time, said she likes seeing the company members’ creativity come together as they perform in different roles throughout the production.
“We’ve created lasting friendships, and each year there’s new people and everyone brings something new to the table,” Hamilton said. “It’s really fun.”
If you go …
What: Odyssey Dance Theatre’s “Thriller”
When: Performances will run through Oct. 31 in various locations.
Where: Show locations include Park City, Ogden, Logan, Salt Lake City, Provo, Richfield and the Tuacahn Amphitheatre in Ivins.
Website: odysseydance.com