Bolshoi Ballet’s ‘Coppelia’ takes to the screen on Sunday

Above: The Bolshoi Ballet production of "Coppelia" will screen on Sunday at Regal's Northtown Mall. (Photo/Fathom Events)

Some of us remember the glory days of Spokane Ballet, the time when Christopher Aponte was the artistic director.

Former Spokesman-Review staff writer (and one-time features editor) Jamie Tobias Neely wrote about Aponte’s tenure in a 1998 story:

“In the past, professional ballet in Spokane often has pirouetted into town and leaped right back out,” Tobias Neely wrote. “There was Spokane Ballet’s tempestuous ending in 1989. It expired like a dying swan, drowning in a pile of unpaid bills and ill will stemming primarily from its talented but temperamental artistic director, Christopher Aponte.”

Still, she was writing both about a coming show and the hope that some sense of ballet appreciation could revive locally.

In any event, ballet appreciation will be on display at 3 p.m. on Sunday when an encore Bolshoi Ballet production of “Coppelia” will screen at Regal’s Northtown Mall theater.

Featuring the music of Léo Delibes, and the choreography of Sergei Vikharev (after Marius Petipa and Enrico Cecchetti), “Coppelia” tells the story of – according to the press notes – “a feisty heroine, a boyish fianceé with a wandering eye, an old dollmaker, and a stunning corps de ballet abounding in youthful energy and irresistible humor in this effervescent production.”

It’s not local. But it is toe-dancing at it best. Gotta appreciate that.