Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo
Festival Theatre, 16/6/26
Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, Artistic Director Tory Dobrin
Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, known as ‘The Trocks’ to their legions of adoring fans, is a gender-skewering comic ballet company founded in New York 50 years ago. They tour the world bringing their own brand of stylish ballet with a twist (all the parts are danced by men), parodying the conventions of romantic and classical ballet and having great fun doing so. The audience never knows what to expect, but it’s always hilarious.
This international troupe of dancers are all professionals, and the dancing, like the comedy, is taken very seriously and is of the highest quality. It’s ballet, but not as you know it. Each member of the Trocks has his own dancer character, and they bring these characters into the roles they perform.
The evening began with Trocks’ famous version of Swan Lake. The Dance of the Cygnets showed the quality of their dancing, with great pointe work and one rather over-enthusiastic little cygnet. The hitherto unknown fight scene saw the swans wading in enthusiastically with punches, kicks, and slaps, all in perfect time with the music.
The Pas de Deux from Don Quixote became a competition between ‘Vavaria Laptopova’ (Takaomi Yoshino) and ‘Jacques d’Aniels’ (Antonio Lopez) to see who could out-dance the other, each executing increasingly intricate and extravagant steps. Not so much a pas de deux as a duel in dance. The result was a (dis)honourable draw.
In Go for Barocco the Trocks sent up modern dance, with the dancers striking geometric poses and attitudes and executing some frankly puzzling choreography, just like the real thing. ‘Olga Supphozova’ (Robert Carter) then danced The Dying Swan solo as a generously moulting bird, diva-like refusing to die and then milking the curtain calls outrageously.
The climax of the evening was Valpurgeyeva Noch (Walpurgisnacht) which saw Pan, Bacchus, and a supporting cast of naughty fauns and floaty nymphs taking part in a wild bacchanal. Impish Pan ‘Boris Dumkopf’ (Takaomi Yoshino) had some seriously good moves. The sybaritic excess included jêtés, leaps, pirouettes, and some daring lifts (occasionally requiring more than one lifter). Three nymphs performed a rather charming veil dance. There were moments where the comic premise faded away, leaving simply the dance. And rather good it was, too. Finally, the curtain call turned into an impeccably riotous Riverdance sequence. The audience loved it, and so did I.
Above all the dancers looked like they were having huge fun. The Trocks put the ball into ballet, and the double into entendre. This is ballet with belly laughs, but it is also ballet with heart and soul, and some rather lovely dancing. The Trocks are unique - here’s to the next 50 years!
Photo credit: Vito Lorusso
