It’s not about the neck.

The four biggest-selling books of last year were Stephenie Meyer’s “Twilight” series about vampire love. And Atlanta Ballet’s “Dracula” is more popular when marketed to a date crowd for Valentine’s Day than when it’s been tried as a Halloween run.

Enlarge this image

CHARLIE McCULLERS/Atlanta Ballet

The Atlanta Ballet presents ‘Dracula’ Thursday-Feb. 15 at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre. Bram Stoker’s story was first told in 1897 and has had numerous spin-offs.

• Email this
• Print this
• Most popular

"Dracula" by the Atlanta Ballet
Performances: 7:30 p.m. Thursday; 8 p.m. Friday; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday; 2 p.m. Feb. 8; 8 p.m. Feb. 13-14; 2 p.m. Feb. 15.
Tickets: $15-$95, available through Ticketmaster.
Where: Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre, 2800 Galleria Parkway. 770-916-2800; cobbenergycentre.com, atlantaballet.com

MORE ON VALENTINE'S DAY
• Plan your Valentine's Day
• Find a romantic restaurant
• Romantic events
• Show us your Valentine

“Surprise! It’s about sex,” said Rhonda Wilcox, English professor at Gordon College and author of “Why Buffy Matters: The Art of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.”

“Much of the time I think it’s about the fantasy of sex without responsibility,” she added. As in: Take me, Drac.

Women drive a lot of the popularity of vampires, boosting “Twilight” into a phenomenon, making HBO’s “True Blood” a hit and flocking to the ballet’s version.

“It’s almost like a hormonal response” in the audience, said John McFall, artistic director of Atlanta Ballet.

The production, running Thursday through

Feb. 15, emphasizes the sensuality of the old story.

There are too many vampires to cover here, so with no disrespect to fans of Buffy-Angel-Spike, Lestat, Blade, Laurell K. Hamilton, “Dark Shadows” (not to mention Count Chocula and Count Von Count), here’s a rundown on two hot vampires of the moment and one immortal.

“Dracula”

• Origins: This 1897 novel by Bram Stoker started it all. Many spin-offs followed, including Atlanta Ballet’s staging. “Perhaps because of his fame he seems the most powerful and alluring,” Wilcox said.

• Love and sex: Stoker linked vampirism with female sexual desire, titillating his Victorian audience. Dracula’s love affair with Mina, however, doesn’t dominate the way vampire-mortal couplings do in modern stories.

• Powers: Strength, speed, hypnosis, can turn into a bat or wolf.

• Vulnerabilities: Wooden stakes, garlic, crucifixes.

“True Blood”

• Origins: Charlaine Harris’ novels went big when HBO made a hit series last year. These vampires can live on synthetic blood and have “come out of the coffin” into society, causing a lot of tension.

• Love and sex: Plentiful, especially the sex. Some mortals and vampires like to get it on, especially Sookie, a mortal waitress in Louisiana, and Bill, a former Confederate soldier. “You can think of the vampire turning the young woman as parallel to having sex,” Wilcox said.

• Powers: Speed, hearing, heightened senses.

• Vulnerabilities: Direct sunlight. Garlic isn’t a problem, except for breath.

“Twilight”

• Origins: Stephenie Meyer has written four megaselling books, and one movie has been made, about Bella Swan, a mortal high school girl, and her swoony romance with Edward Cullen, a vampire. “It does acknowledge that young girls have sexual desires,” Wilcox said.

• Love and sex: Lots of love, not much sex. The novels, written for teen girls but beloved by women of all ages, drip with thwarted longing and forbidden love and make abstinence sexy. When Bella and Edward married and finally did it in Book 4, many fans hated it.

• Powers: Super everything: Strength, speed, sight, hearing.

• Vulnerabilities: Edward is so emotionally vulnerable that he torments himself.