After the Wall: An East German in Long Beach’s ‘Coppelia’ : Dance: David Wilcox dedicates today’s premiere to the German people and brings in ballet master Thomas Vollmer as Dr. Coppelius.

Caught up in the euphoria of East Berlin’s liberation, Long Beach Ballet director David Wilcox barely knew what to do first.

For starters, he dedicated his production of “Coppelia,” which has its premiere this afternoon, to the German people.

Then came a wave of nostalgia. He remembered walking across Checkpoint Charlie several times--as a dancer with the (West) Berlin Ballet--to see the Komische Oper Ballet.

“It was absolutely wonderful,” he recalls, “and the memory set something off in me, a desire to reach out to these artists . . . about to enjoy freedom at last.”

So on Jan. 11, in a moment of unbridled optimism, he picked up the phone and--after much difficulty--finally reached Tom Schilling, the company’s director:

“ ‘Nothing could make me happier,’ I told Schilling, ‘than having one of your dancers come here to perform Dr. Coppelius. What better way to celebrate?’ And he seemed just as eager as I to accomplish the goal.”

So begins a tale of two cities and Thomas Vollmer, among the first dancers from Germany’s newly open sector to travel the free circuit for a guest engagement since the Wall’s crumbling.

Director Schilling told director Wilcox that he had, in Vollmer, the perfect candidate: someone who could dance a romantic role like Romeo as well as the caractere part that needed to be filled in Long Beach.

But in all the excitement, Wilcox was not told until the end of the conversation that the agreed-upon guest artist held the title of Tanzmeister , or ballet master, or that he had won the Bronze Medal at Moscow’s 1983 International Ballet Competition, marking him as a supreme technician.

Considering that the Long Beach Ballet had first sought Dudley Moore to impersonate the crotchety old Coppelius and then Stanley Holden, who specializes in such comic characterizations, Vollmer, a virtuoso in his prime, seemed miscast.

“Thomas doesn’t know the traditional ‘Coppelia’ at all,” says Wilcox. “But he’ll learn it in time. What really bothers me is using him for a role that ignores his technique. So I’ve devised a little something at the conclusion to show off the real talent.”

Getting Vollmer a work visa, it turned out, required extensive documentation--including reviews and references proving that he was, indeed, an exceptional dancer. But fax operations between East Berlin and Long Beach left something to be desired. So when the crucial packet finally arrived--just last week--Wilcox was nearly frantic.

“I went to the airport to collect it,” Wilcox says, “and then directly to Chatsworth, where an official could translate the articles, every word, into English. Meanwhile Vollmer’s ticket was waiting at the airline counter in Berlin.

“Finally we got the OK and a day and a half later, on Jan. 26, Thomas arrived here.”

Since then, the 33-year-old native of Leipzig has been “just flabbergasted,” says Wilcox, who speaks German fluently and translates for his guest.

They stopped on the way back from LAX at a large food market, and Vollmer found the spectacle “scary,” feeling like Coppelius in Wonderland as he beheld bin after bin filled with fresh, crisp vegetables.

“And fruit,” Vollmer says in amazement. “During the winter it’s non-existent at home. People stand in long lines only to find empty shelves.”

Driving down the San Gabriel River Freeway, they saw a half-mile long stretch of car dealerships.

No such instant wheels where Vollmer comes from: “We must be on a waiting list 15 years to buy a car.”

Inside the Long Beach Ballet studio he also confronts a whole new situation. His single experience with Dr. Coppelius involved a revisionist one--with the old toy maker being in love with Swanilda and then fashioning a doll that looked like the heroine.

However, the dancer from East Berlin is not so overloaded with new information that he fails to see the big picture of his expanding world.

“I come from a country,” says Vollmer, “where people live poorly, you can’t imagine how poorly. But artists are special, they’re given every advantage--while, here, amid incredible wealth, there is no money for the arts.

“After a long, exhausting rehearsal I asked to take a shower, but David waved his hand around the meager studio and told me none exists on the premises. What a contrast between our countries. How different the mentality.”