Michael O'Hare (continued)

One familiar role that Michael is currently teaching is that of Dr Coppélius in Coppélia, a popular character part that Michael will also be performing again this summer, when BRB present the ballet in Birmingham and Salford.

'A madcap would-be inventor, with a dream' is how he describes the mysterious figure at the centre of the charming story. 'It's his dream that this beautiful doll that he has created might come to life - you have to get that across because that's the important thing if the audience is to have any sympathy for him. To the rest of the characters in the piece, he's seen as a loner. He's apart from the village, up in his workshop tinkering away on his life’s work, and keeping himself so much to himself makes him possibly appear scary to others, or just totally mad.'

'I've just done it recently, guesting in Germany, with a company who are performing our production. It's very, very tiring to play an older character, and having set up a character’s physicality you have to keep it up all the way through in order for it to be credible, otherwise you break the spell. So that's tiring and hard work in different way from technical dancing, but it’s still very enjoyable to do and no less rewarding.'

Michael explains further the appeal of the role as a dancer: 'It's great,' he declares, 'there is a lot of traditional choreography in the mime and everything, but then within that there is scope for interpretation. This is Peter Wright's production, and he's always open to individual interpretations of these roles, as long as they work! Obviously he will tell you if he feels it doesn't work, but he does allow individuals to bring their own slant to it, as long as they recognise the importance of the central idea of the character; his love for this creation he has made, and his dream that it might become real.'

Michael's enthusiasm for the character is evident, explained by his experiences in acting roles early in his career. 'I always did enjoy it when a role had a dramatic slant to it', he reveals, 'and having such a range of parts from very early on was challenging. We were a smaller company, and with fewer dancers there were more opportunities to move through the roles. Coppélius I actually did late, but when I was very young I was already doing dramatic roles like the Red King in Checkmate, roles that you wouldn't necessarily cast a young man in. It took years to build on those, but nevertheless having started so young, performing acting roles alongside the dancing, I found that one fed off the other.

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