Submitted by Emily McMason for Studio West Dance Theatre
Ballet and laughter may not be two words that are automatically synonymous. But Coppélia? It is a production that has brought out smiles since the ballet debuted in 1870. That’s a lot of happiness. And while the original performance took place in the hallowed Paris Opera, this spring you can stay local to laugh.
Studio West Dance Theatre is continuing their tradition of spring storybook ballets this year with Coppélia. The dancers who last year brought you Cinderella and the year before that Peter Pan are ready to delight audiences at SPSCC’s Minnaert Center for the Arts with four performances of Coppélia running from May 3 – 5.
While laughter may have piqued your interest, are you curious to know more about the story? Here’s a primer. The ballet opens with a celebration to mark the arrival of the new bell for the town square. It is here we meet our up-to-this-point happy young couple, Franz and Swanhilde. Swanhilde soon realizes, however, that Franz is becoming enchanted by another girl. A girl who spends her time sitting very still on a nearby balcony, reading. The balcony’s house belongs to the town’s slightly odd inventor, Dr. Coppélius. (hint: think of Clara’s uncle Herr Drosselmeyer from The Nutcracker).
The plot thickens as Swanhilde, with her friends, enters the inventor’s workshop and realizes that ‘the other woman’ is actually a beautiful doll, created by Dr. Coppélius. Coppélius arrives, the girls flee and Franz enters. The mad doctor believes he can bring the doll to life through a magic spell that requires a human life as one of its ingredients. And who better to sacrifice than the conveniently present Franz?
What happens next? Oh, no. We don’t want to give it away. But is the mix of celebrations and magic and surrealism sounding vaguely familiar? Well, it should. The German E.T.A. Hoffman was a prolific author and composer. Three of his stories were used as the inspiration for two ballets. Coppélia is a merger of his works The Sandman and The Doll. More than 20 years later his third story was adapted. And here’s the one that will ring a bell: The Nutcracker and the Mouse King became what we know today as, yes, The Nutcracker.
Studio West Dance Theatre’s annual production of The Nutcracker is laced with humor throughout the performance. “We want our audience to be caught not just in the magic, but in the playful and whimsical moments in a ballet,” said co-director Stephanie Wood. “Bringing Coppélia to Olympia is a natural choice for us,” added Wood’s partner Mary Cecelia Zechmann. She continued, “we want to share not only ballets people know, but bring lovely, funny traditional stories to the stage that may be new to the audience.”
So don’t let the unfamiliar name deter you. Coppélia is a ballet ready to delight audience members of all ages. Tickets for the show are $15-$24 and available now at olytix.org or by calling 360-753-8586.
