Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, December 9, 1993 TAG: 9312090082
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: JAMIE HEGARTY SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES & WORLD-NEWS
DATELINE: RADFORD LENGTH: Medium
Although it lacks a true Christmas theme, the classic ballet is high-spirited and filled with national folk dancing, "mechanical" dolls, children, a good story line and, of course, a happy ending.
Radford University Ballet Theatre will present "Coppelia" this weekend in Radford's Preston Hall.
Dagmar Kessler, directing the ballet with her husband, Frano Jelincic, wants parents to know that the production is for the whole family.
"It's not a heavy ballet," Jelincic said. The audience can expect to laugh and have a good time watching the performance and listening to the full orchestra, conducted by Mark Camphouse.
Kessler and Jelincic have much to offer this production. They have danced in this classic and others during during their careers.
This year, they say, they have a good crop of young performers.
Along with dancers from the university and children from local dance schools, they have gathered dancers from all around. French dancer Yves de Bouteiller, a guest artist, will dance the male lead, and dancers from Pittsburgh and North Carolina also join the production.
Nicole Ternay, a junior at Radford, will dance the female lead. She was to share the dance with Alison Albright, a senior, but Albright is ill and unable to dance the final performances.
This will be Ternay's first year dancing with the famous Bouteiller. Albright, who danced with him in a production last year, said simply, "He's great."
Ternay was calm about the production, but when you've danced as long as she has - since age 4 - dancing is dancing, no matter who's on stage.
Academics is more of a focus at Radford than arts nowadays, Jelincic said. And the directing couple find they are doing all they can to pull everything together themselves, including ordering scenery and costumes from Pittsburgh, where Jelincic directed the same ballet in 1976.
But Kessler said she and her husband are used to the pressure and that the dancing is going well. Even in November, rehearsals were running smoothly.
"The only real pressure is doing something like this," she said, referring to an interview. "The hardest thing is getting people out there to know we're here."
The price is the cheapest you'll find in this area for a production of this size, Jelincic said.
"Coppelia" will be performed at 8 tonight and Saturday, and at 2 p.m. Sunday in the Preston Hall auditorium. Tickets are $6 for adults and $3 for children. Faculty members and students each get one ticket free.
by CNB