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An Empire of Florals and Tweed

Staging the biographical details of someone’s life is by no means an easy task; doing so for a figure who was complex and controversial amplifies this charge to a new level. When Queensland Ballet announced that it was bringing Annabelle Lopez Ochoa’s “Coco Chanel: the Life of a Fashion Icon” to Brisbane, the reception was anticipatory but hesitant. Ochoa is a skilled choreographer with a talent for narrative ballets, but could Ochoa present the celebrity of Coco Chanel while also tackling her ties to the Nazi regime during World War II? To the ballet’s credit, it addresses these issues head-on. It presents the life of a woman whom the audience can appreciate but also not agree with. It makes smart dramaturgical choices and is a strong co-production by Queensland Ballet, Hong Kong Ballet, and Atlanta Ballet.

 

Performance

Queensland Ballet: “Coco Chanel: the Life of a Fashion Icon” by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa

Place

Playhouse Theatre, QPAC, Brisbane, Queensland, October 11, 2024

Words

Madelyn Coupe

Georgie Swan and Edison Manuel as Logo and Kaho Kato as Shadow Chanel in Queensland Ballet in “Coco Chanel: the Life of a Fashion Icon” by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa. Photograph by David Kelly

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The ballet traces the significant milestones in Chanel’s life. From her time as a cabaret singer to her postwar flight from Paris to Switzerland, Ochoa choreographed the substantial highs and the upsetting lows. The production opened with a striking image. Long fringe curtains draped along the three sides of the stage; the corps de ballet stood atop illuminated chairs, posed like mannequins in a department store. Their bodies were adorned with exquisite designs by Jérôme Kaplan, and visually communicated the legacy Chanel has left on the female silhouette. After this opening scene, we sped through the major moments of her life. We felt excitement in Deauville when Chanel opened her first store, and intrigue during the hunt for the iconic floral perfume. We even felt devastation when she lost the love of her life, Boy Capel, to a car accident. The pacing of the narrative was fast but it cleverly relied on the visual aesthetic to provide context. 

The title role was, interestingly, split into two parts: the main Chanel danced through all of these moments whilst being guided and observed by her future self, Shadow Chanel. As the slightly ominous name suggests, the alternate Chanel seemed to be the driving force behind the main version’s dubious undertakings. Kaho Kato performed Shadow Chanel with just the right amount of indifference and stoicism; she was the one who pushed her younger self to seduce Étienne Balsan, and she was also the one who led the denouncement of her Jewish business partner, Pierre Wertheimer. This has to be one of the most narratively responsible roles Kato has performed to date, and she was such a brilliant fit for the character. She also, quite aptly, balanced Neneka Yoshida’s portrayal as the main Chanel. It was wonderful to see Yoshida tackle a role with some bite. She traced Chanel’s shift from naïve singer to dubious temptress with such ease, and credit must go to her (and Ochoa) for leaning into these complexities. 

Neneka Yoshida as Coco Chanel and Kaho Kato as Shadow Chanel in “Coco Chanel: the Life of a Fashion Icon” by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa. Photograph by David Kelly

The title role was, interestingly, split into two parts: the main Chanel danced through all of these moments whilst being guided and observed by her future self, Shadow Chanel. As the slightly ominous name suggests, the alternate Chanel seemed to be the driving force behind the main version’s dubious undertakings. Kaho Kato performed Shadow Chanel with just the right amount of indifference and stoicism; she was the one who pushed her younger self to seduce Étienne Balsan, and she was also the one who led the denouncement of her Jewish business partner, Pierre Wertheimer. This has to be one of the most narratively responsible roles Kato has performed to date, and she was such a brilliant fit for the character. She also, quite aptly, balanced Neneka Yoshida’s portrayal as the main Chanel. It was wonderful to see Yoshida tackle a role with some bite. She traced Chanel’s shift from naïve singer to dubious temptress with such ease, and credit must go to her (and Ochoa) for leaning into these complexities.  

The detail in the costuming and choreography really made this production stand out. In the workroom scenes, for example, the seamstresses are dressed in an almost identical uniform, the only difference being the numbers on their collars. As Chanel slips into power and greed, it becomes more noticeable that she thinks about her workers a nothing more than replaceable numbers in a line. During Germany’s occupation of France, Ochoa did not cast any of the corps dancers as soldiers. Instead, these roles were inhabited by mannequins which the dancers manoeuvred around the main action—the only embodied German figure on stage was Vito Bernasconi who played ‘Baron’ Hans Günther von Dincklage. When Chanel was dancing with von Dincklage, the dancers removed the mannequins’ heads, and these inanimate spheres suddenly became the outside eyes watching on and condemning Chanel for her actions. 

Neneka Yoshida as Coco Chanel and Kaho Kato as Shadow Chanel in “Coco Chanel: the Life of a Fashion Icon” by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa. Photograph by David Kelly

At times, some of the nuances of the story were too dependent on knowing the fine details in the synopsis. The purpose of Wertheimer coming back into the story post-war was not as clear in the storytelling as it could have been, but this had everything to do with the pacing of the scenes and not Luke DiMattina’s cheeky interpretation of the role. The Chanel logo pas de deux was also a fabulous visual inclusion and was danced exquisitely by Georgia Swan and Edison Manuel. But extrapolating on the links between Chanel and Boy Chapel a little more outside of the programme could have helped justify the placement of this dance. 

“Coco Chanel: the Life of a Fashion Icon” is a smart ballet that should hold a prominent place in the company’s repertoire. Considering this work was six years in the making, it also acts as one last reminder of the vision Li Cunxin had for the company, and I’m interested to see what Queensland Ballet invests in moving forward. 

Madelyn Coupe


Madelyn is a dramaturg and former ballerina based in Brisbane. She holds a BA (Honours) in Drama and is currently undertaking postgraduate study specialising in classical ballet dramaturgy.

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