Could this be Eastern Connecticut Ballet's next seasonal tradition?

The East Lyme-based ECB - which is renowned for its annual production of "The Nutcracker" - is premiering its "Ballet Spooktacular" this weekend at the Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center.

The event boasts three new dance pieces: one set to Saint-Saens' "Danse Macabre" and another inspired by "The Sorcerer's Apprentice," both choreographed by ECB artistic director Gloria Govrin, and "Dancing Bones" choreographed by ECB associate director Krystin Baribault.

The Halloween production is Govrin's brainchild. She recalls that, when she lived in New York City - she danced for 15 years with the New York City Ballet, under the direction of George Balanchine - she rarely saw children trick or treating. In southeastern Connecticut, though, she has seen them out and about and coming to her door for candy.

"That makes you think back to your childhood. For me, Halloween was the best holiday ever," Govrin says, adding that, to her, the day was all about pretend. "I always wanted to be in the theater, so there are the kids who like to dress up in scary costumes and then there are the kids that dress up like princesses. I was always a princess."

When she started at ECB in 2009, the school didn't have classes on Halloween because the kids would all go trick or treating. She thought it was a shame not to have the youths come in and show off the costumes they get so excited about.

"I thought, 'Wouldn't it be fun to put some kind of an event together where kids could come and share their costumes and have a little bit of the theater and have a good time and be safe and just have something special?'" she says. "I thought of this idea: why don't we put some ballets together, decorate the theater, have candy, and just make it a big party?"

That's just what ECB's "Ballet Spooktacular" is. Children in the audience can wear costumes and parade onstage afterward, notes ECB founder and executive director Lise Reardon. They can pose with the ballet dancers in front of a Halloween backdrop, and parents can snap photos of their children with, say, "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" in his wizard hat or with Snow Queen "Elsa." And the youngsters can trick or treat inside the theater.

As for the trio of dances the audience will see, "Halloween Waltz" is set to "Danse Macabre." Govrin had created a dance to that music years ago for Halloween. This work, though, is new.

"I re-choreographed it, but I always loved the music," she says.

She has taken some inspiration from "Giselle," with dancers resembling the wilis - spirits, wearing veils. One girl is a novice who, mid-dance, becomes a full-fledged spirit.

"It's just a beautiful, sort of abstract dance," Govrin says.

Another piece, by Baribault, is called "Dancing Bones." The movements recall that of marionettes, and it's all set to the Charles Gounod composition that was later used as the "Alfred Hitchock Presents" theme music.

"Imagine dancing bones," Reardon says. "You know the bones that glow in the dark? .... It's really clever, what she's done. It has a lot of humor."

And then there's "The Sorcerer's Apprentice." It's about a boy who toys with magic spells that end up taking on lives of their own, and it's pulls partly from the Disney cartoon "Fantasia" and the original 1800s German poem.

"To be honest with you, some of the stuff, I take from the students themselves," Govrin says. "I have one girl, I made her the first broom that transforms. I said, 'Okay, well, now you're going to kind of skip.' The way she was skipping to the music - she totally transformed how I was thinking about how I wanted to do this. It morphed into whatever she started. She became the leader, and I took it from her.

"And you know what? That's part of my Balanchine tradition. Mr. B would walk up to you in the middle of choreographing something, and he'd go, 'What can you do?' Then you'd do it, and he'd (say), 'Keep it in. We'll do that.'"

"You have to be flexible. You see what works and doesn't work, but it is definitely classical music and, in the middle of all of this, there are passe releves and arabesques. (The dancers) are an army of brooms so they have to work in unison."

Reardon says that ECB considers families often when creating ballets.

"We want to provide that opportunity, that alternative to going to see 'Frozen' six million times," she says. "And it's affordable, too."

With this new, different Halloween celebration, she says, "We would love for people to come and share the holiday with us."

Eastern Connecticut Ballet's "Ballet Spooktacular," 11:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. Sat. and Sun., Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center, 300 Main St., Old Saybrook; $16, $10 kids 12 and under; 1-877-503-1286.