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Ballets often tell magical stories, just like fairytales.
Here are the stories of some of the most famous ballets:
The Nutcracker
On Christmas Eve a little girl called Clara is given a Nutcracker doll. At midnight it turns into a prince who fights a great battle with an army of rats.
The prince defeats the rat king and then takes Clara across the Land of Snow to the Kingdom of Sweets. There, Clara sees dances from many different countries and the Sugar Plum Fairy dances a special dance called a ‘pas de deux’ with the prince. In the end Clara awakens to find that it was all just a dream.
Swan Lake
Von Rothbart casts an evil spell over princess Odette, which makes her change into a swan each day. One day she meets a handsome prince called Siegried and falls madly in love with him. He returns her love and if they can prove his faithfulness to her then they can break the evil spell. But the evil Von Rothbart tricks the prince into being unfaithful by diguising his daughter Odile to look like Odette. Siegfried realises his mistake too late and rushes off in search of Odette. Sadly the spell can never be broken and the two lovers decide to die together.
Coppelia
Franz and Swanilda are sweethearts until he falls in love with the toy maker’s daughter Coppelia. He does not realise that she is actually a doll. Angry, Swanilda and her friends break into Doctor Coppelius’s workshop where they find Coppelia and hide her in a cupboard. Unfortunately, Doctor Coppelius returns and catches Franz trying to break in to find Coppelia. He is really angry and drugs Franz who falls asleep. He then tries magic to try and put Franz’s life into the doll. Swanilda can see all that is happening so she dresses up in dolls clothing and tries to trick Coppelius into thinking that his doll has actually come alive. She performs a dance in front of him. Eventually Swanilda and Franz run off together laughing when Coppelius realises that he has been tricked.
La Fille Mal Gardee
The widow, Simone, wants her daughter to marry Alain who is the son of a very rich farmer. Her daughter, Lise, has other ideas as she is already in love with a young farmer called Colas. After many scenes including the famous clog dance, they manage to outwit Lise’s mother and so they marry.
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