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Oogh, they went as her loving advances were spurned; aagh, they added as she flounced off stage, hurt and sweetly petulant. And all accomplished through her masterly grasp of the potent power of sternly classical steps and broad pantomime acting. A secret ingredient fully exploited by RB founder, Ninette de Valois when she reproduced Coppelia in 1954 with Delibes's irresistible score and designs by Osbert Lancaster, then at the height of his popularity as The Sunday Express cartoonist.

Lancaster's picture book village is the backdrop to a tale of aching simplicity. Swanilda's fiance, Franz (Yohei Sasaki) falls in love with a doll the eponymous Coppelia (don t ask), manufactured by crotchety old Dr Coppelius (Alastair Marriott). Swanilda points out a few facts of life, Franz thanks his lucky stars and they all live happily ever after.

The work closed the Royal Ballet's short summer season last week, created at first sight in an age of childlike innocence full of summer sun, thumping good tunes and easily digested dancing. The truth was in 1954 de Valois fledgling company had little money or international class talent to attract a loyal homegrown following of its own. But what they had in spades was good old-fashioned love of dancing and British grit.

And the roots of the Royal Ballet's sensationally rapid progress from enthusiasts to world-class leaders are clear in Coppelia. Today acres of stage are essential for dance; in the 50s space was at a premium, there was no hiding place on an off night. Dancers worked a lot in straight lines, dancing simple classical steps with carefully correct arm and head movements designed to be in perfect harmony with the rustic, syncopated melodies, nose to nose with the audience and just for our enjoyment. Then there is one of ballet's most popular national dances, the Czardas, enthusiastically performed up and down the country at this time of year at dance schools end of term shows. It is a brooding and manic piece sprung from the plains of Eastern Europe with dancers crouching, stamping and violently spinning their girls. Crotchety Dr Coppelius tells the audience with Les Dawson subtlety that he is off to the pub for a drink while hero Franz does a Tom and Jerry creep across the stage to his paramour's window with a pair of stepladders. And it all comes together as a perfectly natural, feel good experience.

It is called stagecraft, developed through generations of love and attention to detail when you do a step, not how many times you can fit it into a bar of music to impress. A country's style is a fragile heritage, often despised as old fashioned and irrelevant by those unfortunate to have matured outside a great national tradition fragile and irreplaceable.