30 MAY 1952, Page 14

BALLET

At Sadler's Wells, Svetlana Beriosova has been dancing Coppelia. Her Swanildk is charming in mood and particularly well danced in Act II. Stanley Holden's Dr. Coppelius was also excellent, but no two dancers, however fine, can bring this dreary over-conventional ballet to life. I shall be delighted when it, and its insipid decor, are discarded.

In Ballet Workshop's new programme at the Mercury, Farewell by Peter Darrell, though slight and not particularly inventive, is quite a charming series of divertissements much enhanced by Hugh Stevenson's costumes. Jack Carter's Living Image, originally composed for television and now rearranged for the stage, is a much more interesting and weighty affair. LILLIAN BROWSE.