According to Bobby Wesner, co-founder and artistic director for Neos Dance Theatre, the wildly inventive dance group is going to have a larger presence in the Akron area. That’s good news for dance lovers, for this company has shown its considerable talent and dance strength during the Heinz Poll Dance Festival in the past few years. Wesner has a couple of projects in the works with The University of Akron that will be coming up within the next six months and following.

Now Neos is bringing the company to perform Wesner’s “Count…the Legend of Dracula.” Interestingly, the group will perform in an empty building near downtown Akron, the APEX building at 118 W. Market St. The literally open space will let the company present an evening of entertainment for all ages and inclinations. Among others, there will be art gallery space and roaming musicians throughout the space, plus light food and beverages.

The piece de resistance will be the performance of “Count.” Neos has, as it says, “re-envisioned and re-imagined a stunningly original adaptation of Bram Stoker’s classical gothic horror masterpiece.” Just how will it go about that? Well, a multimedia type event featuring music ranging from rock, pop, and industrial, video imaging by way of a movie screen with a full-length movie being shown that fits the time span of the dance, some animated pictures and other video programming, and, as Neos says, “the innovative staging that has become [its] hallmark.”

Neos Dance Theatre. Photo courtesy of Neos Dance Theatre

Wesner worked on “Count” with two Emmy-award winning people — videographer and documentary maker Andy Gardner and writer Michael Thomas (who was a writer for “30 Rock” and for the Disney corporation). Good company, but their help with formatting the story to embrace 500 years in the telling and the “behind the scenes” technology, as Wesner said, will be apparent.

Aside from its classic ballet look — with a distinctively modern flair to it — Neos has been seen with all sorts of different lighting, as well as plunging through onstage fog. Simply, it’s a combination of theatrical effects with imaginative dance to give the audience the focus it needs to get the story being told. Wesner has a strong narrative feel in his choreography, as past examples of his creations bear out, and has a dance vocabulary that allows his imagination to roam.

The performance will feature the entire company— co-founders Bobby and Brook Wesner, Jennifer Moll Safonovs, Juliana Freude, Anna Trumbo, Katie Edmonds, Erin Buck, Theresa Bonvissuto and Ethan Lee. Jose Edwin Gonzales will perform the role of Dracula.

Because of the new space in which the dance will be presented, there will different kinds of seating arrangements — and prices. General seating will be $25, with $15 for standing room. However there will also be 50 seats held for VIP seating at $50, which will include hors d’oeuvres and adult beverages. Remember, it’s an evening-long event with other things happening beyond the dance. Sounds like a deal.

Neos Dance Theatre will present “Count…the Legend of Dracula” at its Halloween event at 8 p.m. on Thursday, October 31 at the APEX building, 118 W. Market St., Akron; 419-651-4938; www.neosdancetheatredraculaakron.eventbrite.com. Tickets are $25 for general seating.