As traditional ballets go, it doesn’t get much better than the Birmingham Royal Ballet’s staging of Coppélia.
This version was first performed in 1884 and has a distinctly quaint, 19th Century feel about it. Quirky and light-hearted, there is little plot to speak of, making the main focus the dancing itself and the exquisite marriage of Delibes’ music and Petipa’s original choreography (revised by Cecchetti just ten years later and tweaked again by Peter Wright nearly a hundred years later for the Birmingham Royal Ballet’s forerunner, the Royal Ballet New Group).
Act I is set in a village square somewhere in Eastern Europe, where the eccentric Dr. Coppélius makes mechanical dolls. When he sits the life-size doll Coppélia on his balcony, she causes some upset and confusion – particularly when the doll ‘ignores’ the cheeky Swanilda but blows a jerky kiss to her fiancé-with-a-roving-eye Franz.
Act II sees Swanilda and her friends caught inside the Dr.’s workshop. Chasing them out, he turns to see Franz climb in at the balcony window and decides to use Franz’s spirit to bring Coppélia to life. After drugging Franz and apparently succeeding in his desire, the eccentric old man is made madder still when he discovers that the dancing Coppélia is actually Swanilda dressed in Coppélia’s clothes.
In Act III a new bell is gifted to the village church and the ‘Masque of the Bell’ is performed at the celebratory fête. Here, a number of separate dances are performed that ostensibly illustrate the uses the bell can be put to – a call to arms, to prayer, to work etc. – but actually appears to be a good excuse to show-case some rather fine dancing. No attempt is made to disguise this, with the dancers tearing down the fourth wall at the end of each divertissement to run forward and take a well earned bow.
The flimsy nature of the storyline leaves the dancers somewhat exposed: with only the barest outline of narrative intrigue to hide behind, the interest mainly lies in the execution of the choreography, with much of the dancing having little to do with moving the plot forward. It takes a company with a breadth and depth of quality to pull this off – particularly as today’s ballet audiences are now well-versed in the more exciting, boundary-breaking, modern-contemporary ballet style.
Fortunately, from the ‘First Soloists’ at the top, down to the mere ‘Artists’ at the bottom, the dancing technique, character and style was exceptional. Elisha Willis as Swanilda performed a formidable series of fouette turns that required her head to spin and spot with electrifying rapidity. Equally impressive was Joseph Caley as Franz – and in the traditional male ballet costume of very tight tights, every flex of thigh, every joint and sinew were all on display and none found wanting. A beautiful and impressive ensemble piece of dance.
Runs 4th – 7th February