Birmingham Royal Ballet presents COPPELIA This Summer

This June, Birmingham Royal Ballet takes to the road once more with Coppélia, a timeless classic from the golden age of ballet.

A fleet of articulated lorries, harnessing the equivalent power of 2500 horses, is set to deliver this breath-taking ballet down the M5, from Birmingham to Bristol. Six trucks packed with scenery flats, props, lighting rigs, rails of costumes and flight cases of wigs will sweep into The Bristol Hippodrome.

As a touring company, every Birmingham Royal Ballet production must adapt perfectly to work on different stages all around the country, and Coppélia is no exception. It takes The Combined effort of over 50 backstage staff, more than 40 dancers, 10 actors and one very important mannequin to bring Coppélia's wild mix of abracadabra and comic chaos to life.

Coppélia on the road - facts and figures:

• 6 articulated lorry trailers in total

• 1 scenery truck

• 1 flooring truck - sprung floor necessary for ballet

• 3 lighting trucks - 300 lights

• 3.5 km cabling

• 30,000 watts of light

• 1 costume truck - containing all the dressmaking care and repair materials and machinery

• 31 rails of costumes

• 8 baskets of shoes - the shoe department pack 8-10 pairs of new pointe shoes for each female dancer

• 78 wigs - packed into flight cases

• 250 hair rollers

• 1000 hair pins

• 174 complete costumes

• 2 washing machines and dryers

• 25 Birmingham Royal Ballet core technical staff

• 20 venue staff

• 64 Sinfonia musicians - a major symphony orchestra contains around 80 musicians

• 41 dancers

• 10,356 seats

Despite the military precision required behind the scenes, the result is effortlessly magical.

Overflowing with comedy and magic, Coppélia stands alongside Swan Lake and The Sleeping Beauty as of one of the great ballets of the 19th century. Léo Delibes's infectious, romantic music is performed live at every performance by the acclaimEd Royal Ballet Sinfonia.

At the heart of the story is the eccentric toymaker Dr Coppélius, who causes quite a stir when he tries to bring his greatest creation, the doll Coppélia, to life. In one of the ballet's most iconic scenes, Swanilda sneaks into Dr Coppélius's workshop and tricks him into believing that the doll has come to life indeed.

This timeless classic full of comedy, magic and a musical score that's sure to entertain is at The Bristol Hippodrome, 28 June - 31 July. A truly doll-lightful ballet for the whole family to enjoy!

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