New York City Ballet – Coppélia
When I found out that New York City Ballet were reviving Balanchine’s Coppélia for their Fall 2024 season, I immediately bought myself a ticket for the opening night. I have a special relationship with Coppélia because it was this ballet, as well as the darker source text, the 1816 short story Der Sandmann by E.T.A Hoffmann, that inspired my debut novel, the historical thriller THE DANCE OF THE DOLLS.
In THE DANCE OF THE DOLLS, the story takes place during preparations for the 1933 production of Coppélia at Sadler’s Wells Theatre in London. Ninette de Valois, founder of the Royal Ballet, travelled to France to seek out Nicholas Sergeyev (regisseur of the Imperial Ballet at the Mariinsky Theatre who had fled Russia after the 1917 Revolution and taken with him trunks containing the written records of many of the great ballets of Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov). Together, they rehearsed the dancers of the Vic-Wells Ballet for performances of Act One and Act Two of Coppélia. It is this that forms the backdrop for my novel, the comic ballet providing a jarring contrast to the darker and far more terrifying events that take place in the lives of my fictional twin sisters Clara & Olivia.
To see the Balanchine version of Coppélia for the first time was very special for me. There are many differences to the Royal Ballet version that I know and from which I learnt repertoire while training at the Royal Ballet School, but the comic spirit and playfulness remains the same. Act Three, however, is entirely Balanchine’s, bringing an adorable corps de ballet of twenty-four children in frothy pink tutus, as well as a striking dance of Valkyries. Megan Fairchild is absolute perfection as Swanilda. She attacks the speedy allegro in Act One with precision and fire, and brings a bold sense of fun to every moment.
Act Two in the toy shop remains my favourite section of the ballet. It is here that the darkness of the original Hoffmann story reveals itself, hidden beneath the comedy of a woman tricking a man into believing she is his beloved doll. Dr Coppélius and, to some extent, Frantz, make the mistake of believing that a passive, obedient, beautiful doll is a more attractive companion than a real-life woman with a vibrant and playful personality. It is hard to believe that Swanilda would have really accepted Frantz’s marriage proposal quite so swiftly.
Balanchine’s Coppélia is a joyful comedy, an enchanting story of dancing dolls and mischievous lovers. And yet it was the darker undercurrents that inspired me when I was writing my novel. The book begins with a prologue, a man wheeling a woman through the London streets, ‘his dancing doll, his Coppélia, created at last.’ What will happen, he thinks, when she wakes? Does he want a lifeless doll, his to possess forever? Or does he want a real woman who has the power to love him but also to leave him?
***
THE DANCE OF THE DOLLS was published in 2023, with the paperback edition now available - Identical twin sisters Olivia and Clara Marionetta rehearse for the ballet Coppélia at the recently opened Sadler’s Wells Theater. But, as they rehearse, danger lurks. Two men, a pianist and a pointe shoe maker, intrude on their lives with their obsessions and desires. The story of Coppélia and the dancing doll threatens to become a dark and sinister reality.
