LES BALLET
TROCKADERO DE
MONTE CARLO
☆☆☆☆
Male ballet dancers, in drag, on pointe. Why the
hell not?! If you’re a regular theatre-goer then the
thought of men dressed in tutus and dancing all
the parts to some of your favourite ballets may
seem a bit sacrilege. Like they’re somehow
disrespecting the classic material of ballets by
having male dancers perform all the parts. On the
contrary. The dancers in
Les Ballets Trockadero
de Monte Carlo (the
Trocks for short) are all
classically trained
dancers that have such a
love for these parts.
Their love of dancing is
what comes across on
stage. That and their
very real desire for every
single person in the
audience to have a great
time.
The Trocks’ main goal is
to make ballet a little more fun and accessible to
all, and they do so fabulously. The program is filled
with details of these dancers fictitious
backgrounds from being the first ballet dancers in
space to injuries sustained from over-zealous
violinists. The whole experience of seeing the
Trocks is one of fun and frivolity, as a dance
should be.
The performance comprises of three acts and
included excerpts from different shows. Starting
with Les Sylphides, It was a hilarious combination
of skill and comedic timing to add a whole new
dimension to this classical piece. Confused
characters, slip ups and arguments all occurring
26 THEGAYUK | ISSUE 16 | NOV 2015
alongside the choreography, you will never be able
to look at Les Sylphides the same way again.
The second act was a take on the more
contemporary dancing styles; a piece entitled
‘Patterns in Space.’ In truth you hardly noticed the
dancers in this piece as the onstage “musicians”
stole the focus with their
distracting and hilarious
antics. All in all the first
two acts were great fun
and incredibly
enjoyable, but left you
wanting to see some real
dancing. This is where
the third act really
delivered. The lead
dancer Chase Johnsey
(aka Yakatarina
Verbosovich) was
incredible. For lack of a
more elegant metaphor,
she danced the crap out
of that final act; so much so that it would
completely slip your mind that it was a male
dancing the female lead.
NICK BAKER
Les Ballets trockadero de Monte Carlo are currently
touring the UK.Visit trockadero.org for more details
on performance dates.