I often find many similarities between Coppelia and La Fille Mal Gardee.Both Lise and Swanhilda are witty,funny countrygirls and both are roles for soubrettes.Colas and Franz are both jaunty peasant yokels.Both ballets are heavily influenced by character dancing.Both are comic ballets.Even Dr.Coppelius and Coppelia have counterparts in clumsy Alain and Widow Simone.

I agree there are similarities. There used to be a lot of ballets of this type, but most have been lost, so they're a bit isolated in the repertory.

If you were dancing both roles in the same season, how would you make them different?

If I were to dance Lise and Swanhilda in the same season I would first of all show their stylistic differences.By this I mean that with Lise I emphasize the Ashton style:light,a bit jumpy,no dramatic overkill.With Coppelia I suppose I would dance it in a much earthier way than Lise,more paesant like.Coppelia is hungarian and as a hungarian she is more emotional,more csardas,very witty,almost latin.Lise is more naive,more clog dance,very light and a decidedly very english countrygirl.Asshton had Devon in mind when he recreated this ballet.

I don't think there are similarities between Lise and Swanhilda. Swanhilda makes it painfully obvious that she wants Franz and when he goes off with Coppelia she gets very upset. Lise is coy and pretends she doesn't want Colas but occasionally lets it show. Swanhilda gets angry when things don't go her way, but when something doesn't go Lises way she gets upset and either cries or submits. Swanhilda is strong. Lise is not.

But they're both soubrettes. The details of their characters are different, but still, they're both fairly frivolous young comic leads.

John Hart set "Fille" for SFB in the late 70s. Everyone was surprised at his choice for first cast Lise. It was not the light, sweet, charming and very wonderful principal dancer (Diana Weber) that everyone assumed would be first cast. He picked the earthy, dramatic, and also lovely soloist/principal (Anita Paciotti) to dance opening night. I wonder if this is what Ashton envisioned for his Lise...wasn't it Nadia Nerina? I never had the pleasure of seeing her dance...

Gina, that's an interesting point. I have suspicion (that I can't prove ) that there's a lot more to demicaractere dancing than being light, sweet and charming -- and I think Ashton knew this. Reading some 19th century reviews, one gets the sense that the demis were the "sexy" genre (think of Gautier's "Christian/pagan" differentiation). I've only seen Nerina on film, but she looked more on the earthy than sweet and charming side to me.

There may also have been other considerations. Nerina had a JUMP -- huge jump, for example; it's an important component of the role. And there's also musicality. Of the dancers I saw as Lise in the 1980s, only Dawn Ciacamo (sp?) phrased the role in an Ashtonian way, and she wasn't at all the "right" type.