ORLANDO – It could be just a coincidence – perhaps not – that when Halloween rolled around, temperatures remained summerlike across Central Florida.

“It was still warm out around Halloween,” said Tamara Marke-Lares.

Halloween is a significant date to her, because that’s when Tamara and her sister Leah Marke have been performing “Macabre Vignettes,” a conceptual arts show that melds together the unique talents both sisters have, including Tamara’s artwork and Leah’s dancing and choreography.

“This is the melding of puppetry and modern dance,” Tamara said, while Leah added, “For me, dance is what I do, but we’re really trying to use the dance to show her puppets.”

In the past few years, Macabre Vignettes has been performed in October, right around Halloween, to emphasis the eerie nature of the show. Set in a dark forest, there are black crows hovering above the dancers, a witch hiding in her lair with a brew steaming over a fire, and giant trolls that roam the woods. This year, though, the Marke sisters decided to alter the show a bit, by emphasizing something new and different: winter, and the cold blanketing the forest.

“In the past two years, it was done very close to Halloween,” Tamara said. “This year, it doesn’t feel creepy or eerie, but wintery – blue and snow.”

No surprise, then, that “Macabre Vignettes III” is titled “Snow,” and billed as a “Journey through a shimmering Winter World of unimaginable visisons.”

Tamara said it’s a nice coincidence that a strong cold spell, bringing temperatures down to the freezing level overnight, hit Central Florida just before the first performance on Friday. Just as the stark blue lights and snow falling from above set the perfect mood for the Snow performance at the Urban Rethink Studio, it was just as easy to glance out the window at Central Boulevard and spot pedestrians outside, all bundled up in winter jackets. That’s exactly what she was hoping for.

“I was really crossing my fingers, because it wasn’t cold out at all on Halloween,” Tamara said.

Leah said this is a winter show that doesn’t emphasize the holidays.

“It’s something to keep in mind, that this isn’t Christmas,” she said. “It’s fall and winter and snow.”

This is the third year that the Marke Sisters and VOCI Dance have been performing Macabre Vignettes, which Leah said is the “umbrella name” for this evolving piece of work.

“It will always be that name,” she said. “It’s under a big umbrella that makes people feel all the elements connect.”

Tamara developed the concept, design, and artwork of the show, as well as the larger-than-life marionettes that haunt the dancers, and the costumes worn by the dancers.

Leah and Amanda Oost Bradberry did the choreography, with contributions from the dancers. The eclectic mix includes modern dance, art scultptures, ominous-looking puppets, music, and blue lights that definitely set the mood of winter – along with the snow that falls from above, letting the audience feel like they truly are in a winter wonderland.

“This is using dance as a medium to show and express,” Leah said of the hour-long show.

There are no chairs for the audience to sit on – they can stand anywhere they like inside the studio, and if they happen to get in the way of where the dancers are supposed to go, the performers gently brush them aside.  The audience gets even more involved when the witch crawls out of her hut bearing gifts — a tray filled with cupcakes which she hands out to the audience, with a cry of “Eat! Eat!”

But do they dare sample it after seeing the two rats on a skewer being roasted above her fire?

“For a lot of people, it’s seeing something like that for the first time,” Tamara said. “The crowd is definitely growing every year. They’re intrigued.”

While puppets have traditionally been thought of as entertainment for children, Tamara said this show takes them to a very different level. 

“It’s puppetry for grownups,” she said. “I think adults can walk through this. It’s mature puppetry, puppetry as art.”

In fact, the sisters said they’re hoping to tap into an emerging audience in Greater Orlando for intelligent and stimulating conceptual art.

“We’re hoping we’re part of a growth spurt,” Tamara said.

“Macabre Vignettes III: Snow” will be performed tonight at 8 p.m. and 10 p.m., and Sunday at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m., at Urban Rethinkm 625 E. Central Boulevard. Tickets are $20 at the door.