Sergei Polunin, the notorious “bad boy” of the ballet world, is set to appear in The Moscow Stanislavsky Ballet’s production of Roland Petit’s Coppelia at the London Coliseum in July this year for just six performances.
Petit’s version of the work, which debuted in 1975, is just one interpretation of one of the most well-known ballets with the story including magic, humour, love and even a happy ending!
Staged by Luigi Bonino and set to music by Leo Delibes, this particular production contains all the loved classics of the classical ballet, including the Mazurka, the Waltz of the Hours and the energetic Czardas dances.
The Moscow Stanislavsky Ballet is lead by internationally renowned dancer Igor Zelensky and will bring together some of the century’s finest principal dancers such as the 23 year old Ukranian star Polunin and up-and-coming ballerina Erika Mikirticheva, who will be dancing Franz and Swanilda respectively amongst two other casts. As an incredible yet completely notorious talent, Polunin is set to wow hungry audiences as he helps tell the story of red-blooded Franz’s comic adventures in his falling in love with the beautiful (doll) Coppelia.
The Moscow Stanislavsky Ballet was born in 1939 as a result of the joining of the Nemirovich-Danchenko Music Theatre and the Moscow Art Ballet, founded by the former Bolshoi ballet star Victorian Kriger. The established company quickly became one Russia’s leading ballet companies and went on to tour extensively across Europe and the USA. Today, the company has since staged numerous productions such as Cinderella, Don Quixote, Giselle, La Sylphide, Mayerling, Napoli, Swan Lake, The Nutcracker and even The Little Mermaid. This demonstrates that this first-class company still provides much for the ballet world, and with fantastic casts for its productions, will continue to do so well into the future.
Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.