Woman versus Automaton
Beauty and Choreostorytelling in Coppélia, a Dance Adaptation of E.T.A. Hoffmann’s “The Sandman”
Keywords:
Ballet, Adaptation, Beauty, ChoreostorytellingAbstract
Coppélia is a ballet about beauty, mostly in the way it is danced and in the choreolanguage it uses, namely the ballet technique. It is about the automaton Coppélia and the self-confident Swanilda, who rescues her fiancé Franz from magician Coppelius by revealing, among other things, that Coppélia is indeed an automaton and not a real woman. The ballet is loosely based on E. T. A. Hoffmann’s tale “The Sandman.” The methodology employed is composite and includes dance and adaptation studies.
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