Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo

Les Ballets Trockadero are in no need of a boost from me, as they have been playing to ecstatic sellout audiences for decades. However, I enjoyed the show they put on the other evening so-o-o much, I just had to write about them. Plus, I thought I'd use the opportunity to talk about parody. 

The Trocks first started up as a spoof event in the 1970s. Nobody, least of all themselves, took them seriously but they have since become an institution. They are great fun - but if you are in any way a ballet afficionado, they are an absolute must-see.

The all male troupe are a send-up of the classic ballet troupes of the twentieth century. While taking themselves very very seriously, these corps de ballets tended to be extremely pretentious and self-dramatising. Ballerinas couldn't be called things like Peggy Hookham (Margot Fonteyn) in a world full of the then highly regarded Russian prima ballerinas. So the Trocks award themselves names like Ida Nevasayneva, and Nadia Doumiafeyva (my personal favourite being Lagavulina Skotchroksova). 

The dancers all have a male as well as female persona, e.g. Boris Nowitsky and Velour Pilleaux. There is obvious clowning around with these personalities: pairing up a very small male danseur with a large ballerina whom he drops, or after lifting her, staggers around the stage clutching his back. Beautiful white feathered costumes are offset by chest and underarm hair.

The main reason, though, that the Trocks remain popular, is that they are fabulous superb dancers. They are not clowns in tutus, but magnificent highly trained artistes. While some of their acts involve obvious clowning around, they will spoof up Martha Graham as readily as Swan Lake. A lot of the clowning plays on ballet conventions and their most cherished performances are almost pure dance. 

My favourite piece on the night when I was lucky enough to go, was their Don Quixote. The friend I was with was a former ballerina and she was unable to refrain from occasionally whispering to me in awe about the number of assemblés a dancer had managed, or the quality of the battements. The whole ballet was delightfully absurd. As you can see, Don Quixote himself had been dropped; it was all just an excuse to leap about in flamenco-esque costumes with tambourines. Don't ask me where the large and beautifully coiffured cupid fitted in! she was very elegant. This is the nature of a highly successful parody: something more skilful than the original, it mimics the original almost perfectly - just touching it up with high colour now and then to draw our attention to some of its more absurd aspects. 

And hats off to the Trocks, for even arranging that there should be the obligatory audience members rustling sweet papers at key moments of high emotion! as invariably happens in the 'real' ballet. 

(That last bit was a free example of sarcasm to go with your parody LOL.)  

You can enjoy the Trocks on Youtube, although this is just not at all the same as seeing them in the flesh (and feathers, net, tulle, sequins, gauze etc etc). Before you check out this video of Maya Thickenthighya dancing her Dying Swan, have a look at one of the most famous pieces of ballet footage (ho ho! footage!), The Dying Swan performed by Anna Pavlova: