‘Happy ever after’ tale is great advert for ballet

Coppelia, Opera House, Manchester

THIS Ellen Kent production, featuring the Russian Classical Ballet Theatre, is light entertainment at its best.

With a principal dancer who floats around the stage making every difficult step look easy, a large live orchestra, and an impeccable cast of more than 50 dancers, it would be difficult to ask for more.

Kristina Terentieva danced with the same style and grace she portrayed in “Swan Lake” earlier this week in a double production brought to Manchester to celebrate Ellen Kent’s 10th anniversary of bringing Eastern European ballet to the UK. This jolly show, which runs until tomorrow, is packed with playful music alongside plenty of fun and humour from the cast as they dance their way through a tale of love and jealousy — albeit of a mechanical doll, with the age-old fairytale ending of “happy ever after.”

Kristina delivered a dazzling performance with effortless ease, and she commands the stage with her skill and expertise which is a joy to witness. Her strength never wavered in a faultless performance which offered energy and precision, and quite rightly attracted the greatest applause from an appreciative audience throughout the whole of the evening.

Little wonder then that she was Grand Prix winner of the International Dance Competition in Vienna in 2007.

Oleksiy Burakov made a wonderful Dr Coppelius, the eccentric toymaker who, desperate to bring life to his “daughter” Coppelia, calls on magical powers to suck the life force from Swanilda’s fiancé, Frantz, and breathe it into his favourite doll.

While Coppelia looked for all the world like the mechanical doll she was supposed to be, rustily coming to life, when she was in fact Swanilda in disguise, playing a trick on both her betrothed and on Coppelia’s wacky creator.

Enchanting entertainment for the whole family, the show is fun to watch, both for the seasoned ballet fan and for first-timers, who could not ask for a better introduction to the joys of ballet.