Coppelia impressive and spectacular

Coppelia ballet was a great show

Coppelia

A Shirley McDouall School of Dance Production

Restaged, directed and choreographed by Melissa Tate with Olivia Reuters

Royal Whanganui Opera House

December 3 and 4.

Reviewer: Paul Brooks

It was an afternoon of appreciation of a huge, concerted effort to stage a full-length ballet with a cast of 150 dancers of varying ages and degrees of skill and advancement.

The set was glorious. Colourful, and picturesque, creating the illusion of a “fairytale” European village of days gone by, using structures on stage, a huge backdrop and video of moving clouds across the rooftops. And the costumes! Beautifully made and evocative of the time of the story. They are many and varied, with some of contrasting styles and colours when dancers move through a vortex in time.

The first act is set in the village square, beside which is the house of Dr Coppelius (Conner Jenkins). In an upper window of the house, we see a girl named Coppelia (Anna Durning), who sits all day, apparently reading a book. The village square is busy, and we meet Swanhilda (Amy Bennetts) and her friends as they greet the villagers and dance gracefully around the stage. Here we also meet Franz (Peter Doney), who is engaged to Swanhilda but sees and is entranced by Coppelia in the window. Swanhilda is not happy.

Coppelia is, in fact, an elaborate doll, but her creator, Dr Coppelius, has plans to capture Franz and use his spirit to bring Coppelia to life, and she will be the daughter he longs for.

Franz is duly captured and, in act 2, Swanhilda and her friends find their way into the doctor’s house and discover his secret. To trick Dr Coppelius, Swanhilda swaps places with Coppelia and convinces her creator that she has indeed come to life. It was a ruse, of course, to free Franz. When Dr Coppelius is told what really happened, he feels very foolish, but they forgive him and he is invited to the wedding of Franz and Swanhilda (act 3).

Obviously, the story is danced, not told verbally, but it comes across clearly.

Throughout the story we meet all kinds of characters, including toys and dolls from Dr Coppelius’ house and, as well as traditional ballet, we are treated to other forms of dance, including tap and modern, when dancers go through a vortex. That’s where we see an array of dress, including some cleverly lit costumes (stickmen and fairies). The work that must have gone into those, and then being able to control the lighting when required, shows how huge a team effort this production must have been.

The show was one of elegance, grace, beauty and pageantry on a scale much bigger than I imagined. There were more highlights than I have space for, but one that stole the hearts of all was the dance by the Rays of Sunshine. With a backdrop of a field of sunflowers, the tiny-tot dancers, in colourful costumes and headdresses to match, came on and stole everybody’s hearts. They were guided through their paces by Laura Mackintosh, who plays an Arabian dancer in act 2.

Because of the age range of dance students, we saw dances choreographed to display the strengths of those at differing levels of advancement, and we also saw the skill, grace and accomplishment of the school’s gifted senior dancers.

It was an incredible production and credit goes to all who shared the monumental task of staging it.

Congratulations to Conner Jenkins, who picked up the role of Dr Coppelius at short notice when Carey Knapp’s health precluded him from playing the part.

Net proceeds from the show go to local charities.

But to the woman downstairs on Saturday who chose to spend the time scrolling through goodness knows what on her large device, lighting up her part of the darkened auditorium in the process, you were rude, distracting, and disrespectful of the talented dancers on stage.