Coppélia/English National Ballet, Coliseum - dance review

Considering the fact that ENB boss Tamara Rojo has made a big deal of taking the company into new modern territory, and not wanting ballet to be seen as all fairy tales for little girls, it’s funny that she chose to programme Coppélia, one of the oldest ballets in the rep and very much a childish fantasy.

Coppélia is like the Ukip of ballet (minus the racism): firmly planted in the olden days, in a chocolate-box world that never actually existed, with some questionable morals on the side. The story, from an ETA Hoffmann tale, but with all the dark undercurrent exorcised, involves a young man who falls in love with the perfect woman, only to discover she’s a life-sized doll. The fact that he’s a two-timing cad who’s already engaged to someone else seems to be by the by.

Yonah Acosta (Carlos’s nephew) plays said cad, Franz, with plenty of boyish charm and comic effect. He’s a dancer who relishes being centre stage, and while he’s still a bit green he’s a solid performer with plenty of personality, plus those big Cuban jumps.

He’s paired with another up-and-comer, soloist Shiori Kase, in her debut as Franz’s ever-suffering fiancée Swanilda. She acquits herself well technically, playing it sweet, stroppy or smug as the mood takes her. There’s lots for the corps de ballet to do, filling the pretty stage in their autumnal-hued Slavic-inspired outfits, either framing the soloists or mazurka-ing off with neat, fleet footwork.

Coppélia is a frivolous show; it’s interesting as an example of 19th-century ballet but as a piece of theatre it’s inconsequential. This is a well executed production but hardly makes the case for ballet as a relevant, living art.

When will someone make a story ballet set in the 21st century? Please!

Until July 27 (020 7845 9300, eno.org.uk)