When Franz Met Swanilda: Sarah Lane and Daniil Simkin on Rehearsing "Coppélia"

In a rehearsal before their Lincoln Center performance of Coppélia last May, Sarah Lane and Daniil Simkin ran through some of the partnering in a studio several levels below the Metropolitan Opera stage where they would perform. In Frederic Franklin’s charming production for American Ballet Theatre, Swanilda, danced by Lane, and Franz, by Simkin, must balance raucous comedy with sublime classicism. Although considered the perfect soubrette role, Swanilda presents serious technical challenges. The dancer must possess a chameleon-like ability to transform from a spunky village beauty to a robotic doll to a loving bride. And Franz is much more than a frat boy jokester; he becomes a devoted husband in the pristine wedding pas de deux at the end of the ballet.

Lane laces up her shoes. “I love that Swanilda is sassy,” she says. “My interpretation is that she’s really fun, has a lot of friends and at the same time has a very strong will—she knows what she wants. I can relate to her because I can be very opinionated.”

“What I love about dancing with Daniil is that he lightens me up,” says Lane. “I can sometimes take what I do too seriously. His energy really calms me down and he makes me laugh.”

“The challenge is not to make Franz too one-dimensional,” says Simkin. “You can’t make him too dumb, so that people don’t like him. So he is charming, but not the brightest. It’s not easy to find that balance.

“Sarah and I have a lot of fun together,” says Simkin. “We have inside jokes, where we whisper to each other during the steps. I try to tell her, ‘Stop thinking!’ With thinking, sometimes less is more.” “You’ve been mischievous the whole ballet and then, in the wedding pas, the love between you and Franz blossoms,” says Lane. “Every relationship is like that—you have bad times, but you turn them into something beautiful. Love for each other wins in the end.”