Artistic Director Alex Ossadnik presented his quite charming version of the comedy ballet, Coppélia, Saturday evening at the KiMo Theatre. The Ballet Repertory Theatre enlarged the cast with scores of children and budding ballet students in true civic ballet tradition. Flower girls, farmers, shopkeepers and dolls danced the folk and waltz steps skillfully, and with high energy. 

The original choreography by Arthur Saint-Léon, to music by Leo Delibes, was first seen at the Paris Opera in 1870. He introduced the use of national and folk dances into ballet, especially the czardas in this work. The story tells of the young Svanhilda who competes with a mechanical doll for the love of Franz. The mysterious Dr. Coppélius has a workshop full of life-size dolls like Coppélia, that move and dance at the snap of a finger or flick of a switch.

Ossadnik’s highly comic version allows Coppélius and Svanhilda to cooperate on a plan to fool the rather dippy Franz into rejecting his obsession for the doll, and choose the human Svanhilda as his wife. Alexa Castle danced the role of the doll with icy perfection, her face never breaking into expression, and her moves a nice blend of sharp rigidity and lyricism. Her side leg extensions seemed to reach an ear, and her balance was extra-ordinary in true mechanical perfection.

The ballet was divided into three acts, or tableaus, the first and last taking place in the center of the village, and the second inside Coppélius’s workshop. In the first act the lovers meet, but Franz, danced by Edward Montoya, is quickly distracted by the appearance of the doll, wheeled out by the doctor. Exaggerated gestures of hand over heart, vibrating with passion, indicate emotion for Franz in a characterization that mocks the Romantic stereotype, but Svanhilda, danced by Desirae Telles, she and her friends erupt in a torrent of punching, muscle flexing, and stamping gestures that reveal a far from 19^th century decorum in their anger. One of the friends kept losing her glasses and staggering about to catch up with the action. Slapstick is always a risk in ballet, but Ossadnik knows what he is doing here and it works delightfully.

Act II, in the semi-darkened workshop, was a visual treat with Laura Pierce’s sumptuous and spooky costumes evoking not only a child’s dream, but something a tad sinister. SvanHilda and friends creep about looking for Coppelia with one step forward, and tiny bourées backwards. Suddenly the light changes, the doctor emerges, and the dolls snap into life. When Franz sneaks into the workshop to ask for Coppelia’s hand in marriage, the doctor quickly gets him drunk in a fun, drinking duet. Each shot erupts in quirky little steps that get more and more ragged.

The copy-cat duet between SvanHilda and Coppélia was a highlight as each prim little mechanical pose, pirouette, and tight little echangé of the feet brought the characters together in mimicry. Finally they are disguised in identical wedding dresses and veils.

Act III uses the wedding, and Franz’s final selection of the right bride to present a colorful divertissement including flower girls with arching garlands creating tableaus within tableaus, a quintet of the friends performing sharp, unison jumps and scissons in the air when the two brides are rolled on stage. They had become indistinguishable from each other, but Franz found his Svanhilda. The folk dances returned as townspeople and the dancers swarmed into the audience as a part of the celebration.

What: Coppélia

When: March 1 & 2, times vary

Where: KiMo Theatre

How Much: $15, $20, $25

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