Kevan Allen usually choreographs for film premieres, TV, musicals, fashion shows, corporate events and pop videos (Hear’Say’s Pure and Simple was one of his, 00s fans). But here he is with his own company, revisiting a 19th-century ballet. And it doesn’t look like much else you’ll see on the dance stage.
As you’d expect from that CV, Allen is good at energy, immediacy and putting a populist spin on things. Sophisticated, sensitive choreography that reveals people’s inner worlds? Less so. But that’s not the point. I don’t think this was made for po-faced dance critics, and it’s doing a laudable UK tour to places that don’t often see much dance.
The whole thing is a mashup: ballet, contemporary, hip-hop, commercial dance, all piled on top of each other. The music, by Swedish composer Rickard Berg, takes Léo Delibes’ ballet score and remixes it, throwing down a hip-hop beat (in a poor-sounding recording at this theatre). The setting has olde-worlde fairytale vibes but also dancers wearing headphones and bouncing basketballs, and the costumes are busy with layers and textures, frills, belts and patches (and all danced barefoot). It’s the “more is more” approach – messy, but enjoying all the incongruity.
The story – of an inventor, his lifelike mechanical doll and the young man who falls in love with it – is the one thing that stays close to the classic ballet. There have been some great contemporary reinventions of Coppélia recently, such as Scottish Ballet turning it into a story about AI, but this is not one of them. Although there’s a belated attempt at the end to give Dr Coppélius some depth, there’s not much real investment in personality and plot. It is mostly about having fun: broad characters with exaggerated facial expressions, lots of stage business and busyness.
Allen has gathered an energetic cast of all-rounders, including Ellie Fergusson, the hyper-flexible winner of the first series of The Greatest Dancer back when she was 14. Taz Hoesli’s hip-hop training shines through, and Laura Braid is strong, although the choreography doesn’t really stretch her. Like the doll Coppélia, it’s not a completely convincing creation, but it’s animated with great enthusiasm.