Once again producer Ellen Kent has brought her wonderful style of famous ballet to Wimbledon, and I found Coppelia a delightful experience on Thursday when it followed the earlier presentation of the much acclaimed Swan Lake, writes Heather Flood.

And those who missed this double dose of classical ballet at Wimbledon got another chance to see the' Russian Classical Ballet Theatre tour this week (Oct 16-21) at Richmond, where Coppelia has been showing from Monday to Wednesday, followed by Sleeping Beauty from Thursday to Saturday.

Coppelia is a mesmerising fairy tale, based on an E T A Hoffmann story of an eccentric toymaker and his lifelike doll Coppelia.

Lead dancers Nadezhda Schepachiova, as Swanilda, and Egor Schepachiov, as her fiance Franz, perfectly encaptured the love elements with the special chemistry they bring from their own personal lives. Nadezhda and Egor have been married for almost 10 years and form a mesmerising partnership on stage. Their repertoire includes Nutcracker, Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, Romeo and Juliet and Snow White.

Igor Gherchiu delivered a charasmatic performance as the wicked doll maker Coppelius, who is in love with his creation Coppelia and tries to bring her to life.

A wonderfully colourful second act takes us inside Coppelius's workshop, where lovers Swanilda and Franz discover that Coppelia is only a life size mechanical doll, and the wicked Coppulius drugs Franz. His plans are to bring Coppelia to life by transferring Franz's life force into her. To save Franz Swanilda pretends to be Coppelia. The story and music are a compelling mix.

If you have a young child who you want to introduce to ballet this production would be a very good start.