Milwaukee Ballet’s fun “Coppelia” (Review)

Luz San Miguel’s Swanhilda gave Ryan Martin’s Franz an epic tongue lashing in Act 1 of  Coppélia, which the Milwaukee Ballet revived Thursday evening. Of course she said nothing, but you could make out every word in the rat-at-tat of her toe shoes on the floor and the crisply articulated releves that peppered the flurries of traveling steps. The staccato slashing of arms and articulations of her torso and shoulders, held in beautiful classical positions through it all, completed the picture of aggression.

I hasten to add that (1) this was not tragic diva rage, but rather the comic pique of a spoiled brat in comic high dudgeon and (2) San Miguel did it all through accent, timing and laser-beam focus on her quarry, not through burlesque and mugging.

Martin partnered her gallantly and reacted to her like a smitten lug who knows he has his hands full. The piece is set in an early 19th-century Polish village (elaborate sets and costumes, via Houston Ballet, establish locale), but we know this couple. He’s the high-school quarterback, she’s the head cheerleader; they were born to love, bicker and tease each other.

Artistic director Michael Pink ingeniously weaves their ongoing spat into a series of Act 1 mazurkas, which the ballet corps danced with great flair and precision. Franz, rejected by Swanhilda, takes up with the gorgeous Diana Stetsura but keeps encountering San Miguel as she flits in and out of the figure dance. Clever.

Franz set off their tiff by falling for a beauty seen on the balcony of the mysterious Dr. Coppélius, played with endearing melancholy gravitas by actor Dan Mooney. Swanhilda’s rival turns out to be one of Dr. C’s mechanical creations. In Act 2, Swanhilda and six friends sneak into the Doctor’s workshop to check out the supposed rival. San Miguel and Kara Bruzina, Yuki Clark, Susan Gartell, Valerie Harmon, Courtney Kramer and Nicole Teague did a hilarious Minnie Mouse in the Haunted House routine; you can nearly feel the goosebumps on their spines. They have a ball acting like silly girls who can’t stop alternately trembling and giggling.

San Miguel is at her funniest when she disguises herself as Coppelius’ doll and makes the poor fellow think he’s created life. Her stop-action mechanical dancing is a marvel, and she and Mooney executed their physical comedy perfectly.

San Miguel reeled off bravura Spanish and Scottish character dances for Coppélius in the attic, but her diva turn came in the traditional, extended pas de deux in Act 3. She was spectacular in her speed and gorgeous in her placement.

Pink modeled his recreation of this 1870 ballet, originally by Arthur St. Leon, after Auguste Bournonville. It’s not about big jumps and towering lifts. For Martin, the virtuoso turn had to do with elegant carriage and confident delivery of the usual danseur noble tricks, and he was superb.  For San Miguel, it was all about maintaining a light, placid body over fusillades of quick steps in tricky rhythms, and she, too nailed it.

I admire the way Pink wove character even into these dances. She doesn’t just dance her solo variation, she flirts and teases Franz with it, to his mixed amusement and consternation. She doesn’t just walk upstage right to prepare for her cross, in the usual way of ballet; she scampers there as Martin pursues her.

Such details abound and delight throughout this show, by far the funniest and freshest Coppélia I have ever seen. But as funny as it was and as detailed and nuanced as it was in its storytelling, ballet in the end is about dancing. And what dancing we saw in this production.

Pink’s great gift for finding little ways to freshen and tweak character dances really counts here, as Léo Delibes’ charming score abounds with mazurkas and waltzes. (The Milwaukee Ballet Orchestra, under Pasquale Laurino, played them well and sounded good — after settling down from a too-hasty and over-amplified start.) Pink devised and his dancers delivered one delightful and in some way surprising ensemble dance after another.

Finally, we must note two spellbinding allegorical solos, understood here as traditional festival entertainments in the village, from Act 3: Yuki Clark as The Dawn and Susan Gartell as The Prayer. Clark, light and airy as a mirage, landed without a sound as she circled the stage in series of little jumps. Gartell hit just the right Bournonville note in her arabesques and arabesques penchée, with modest reach, absolutely perfect placement and placidly secure balance. Gartell’s pliant grace showered blessings not only on the pretend Polish villagers, but on us all.

Julianne Keply and David Hovhannisyan (7:30 p.m. Friday and 1:30 p.m. Sunday) will alternate with San Miguel and Martin (7:30 p.m. Saturday) in the lead roles, as Coppélia continues at Marcus Center Uihlein Hall. Call the Marcus box office, 414 273-7206, for tickets.