A famed Norwegian choreographer, whose ballet play is staged for tonight in Ho Chi Minh City, has highly regarded Vietnamese ballet artists’ talent and expressed her hope that Vietnamese ballet will thrive and have a stable future in the coming years.

The “Coppélia” ballet, one of France’s most popular ballets, was performed by the Ho Chi Minh City Ballet Symphony Orchestra and Opera (HBSO) on Thursday.

The ballet will be staged again at 8:00 pm on Friday at the Municipal Theater at 7 Cong Truong Lam Son Street, District 1.

Behind the play is renowned Norwegian choreographer Johanne Jakhelln Constant, who earlier made HBSO’s productions of “The Nutcracker” and “Cinderella” successes.

She has constantly praised Vietnamese ballet dancers’ skills and techniques, and had no difficulty whatsoever in instructing them of her technically-demanding choreography moves.

However, she found it quite a challenge to gather all or most of the artists for drills or rehearsals, as several of them are students while many others have a hectic performance schedule outside to improve their incomes.

Constant said that she once worked with a new theater in the U.S. which had a mere 12 official dancers in its early days.

They encountered numerous difficulties, but gradually managed to stage good plays, enjoy high ticket sales, and attract sponsorship from cultural funds and philanthropists.

“The theater now enjoys a huge success. Its dancers are wholeheartedly committed to and can live well on their dancing career. Some do outside tutoring out of passion, not to improve their incomes, so they’re always ready to show up whenever the theater needs them,” added Constant, who served as art director for American troupe Ballet Quad Cities for ten years.

The Norwegian choreographer acknowledged the limited number and irregularity of ballet plays in Vietnam, as most of them are the result of foreign collaboration.

“Compared to other dance genres, especially contemporary ones, ballet is quite difficult to fully enjoy. However, audiences can easily find all the marvels which the human body can do just as they do with the American ‘So You Think You Can Dance’ show,” Constant stressed.

“A brilliant ballet dancer will guide audiences, even total laymen, into their rich world of emotions,” she noted.

She expressed her hope that when she returns to Vietnam in the future, Vietnamese ballet will appeal more to local audiences and enjoy a more stable future.

“Coppélia,” considered one of the greatest comic ballets of the 19th century, has remained one of the best-loved classical works in the ballet repertory.

The ballet includes melodic national dances, musical descriptions that introduce the main characters, and spectacular effects that hold the interest of the audience.

The music of “Coppélia” links two great historical periods of ballet – the French Romantic style and the Russian Classical style.

Just like “The Nutcracker” and “Cinderella,” “Coppélia” belongs to one of the projects supported by Transposition Program, a collaborative organization of Norway and Vietnam, which aims to promote the Southeast Asian country’s musical development.

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