{"id":1829,"date":"2019-01-14T03:43:36","date_gmt":"2019-01-14T03:43:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/juliacore.com\/beyondthebarre\/?p=1829"},"modified":"2019-01-18T02:07:55","modified_gmt":"2019-01-18T02:07:55","slug":"les-ballets-trockadero-de-monte-carlo-men-in-tights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juliacore.com\/beyondthebarre\/2019\/01\/14\/les-ballets-trockadero-de-monte-carlo-men-in-tights\/","title":{"rendered":"Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo \u2013 Men in Tights"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lizzie saw an ad for Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo<\/a> in one of The New Yorker<\/a> issues lying around the house and got four tickets including Charlotte, me, and one of her friends. She knew the show was the day after her wisdom teeth extraction surgery. To accommodate her recovery and save on commute, Tom offered to drive.<\/p>\n

The day was rainy and foggy. By the time we had to leave, it was pitch black. The friend bailed out. I didn\u2019t sleep well the night before and was really tired. Five minutes prior to the departure, Tom was in bed completely out, catching up after his 5 AM shift at work. Charlotte made it known that she only wanted to go to spend time with Lizzie and was ok staying home. Lizzie did not come out of her room since last night and had not eaten all day. Just in case, Charlotte and I were ready \u2014 sort of \u2014 both secretly hoping to stay home. The weather was the most dreary weather of the year and thoughts of Friday night Christmas commute to the city were not enticing.<\/p>\n

Lizzie came downstairs \u2014 all made up, swelling patched up, and ready to go \u2014 as if she hadn’t had her four wisdom teeth taken out the day before. Tom got out of bed.<\/p>\n

Tom has this amazing ability to go from being completely asleep to full speed action on Route 17 in less than five minutes \u2014 ablutions included.\u00a0Our ride to the city was amazing. Lights were turning green as we were approaching them and cars were moving out of our way. This never happens to anyone! The magic of the season got us to the door of the theatre and provided a street parking spot around the corner in less than an hour. It was meant to be.<\/p>\n

Once we got over differences in our expectations and Tom took the ticket and place of the bailed-out friend, it felt so great to be in the city \u2014 all four of us, together \u2014 among those people, and lights, and music, and smells. The theater, the stage, the atmosphere, the vibes! Thank you, Lizzie, for spotting this show, getting the tickets, and bringing us here. Thank you, Charlotte \u2014 for your composure and being game. And Tom.<\/p>\n

Here, settled in my seat with the curtain in view! The anticipation…<\/p>\n

\"IMG<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The house was packed. It was obviously sold out. New York theatre crowds are special. People are open, accepting, and easy to talk with. Here’s the woman who brought a box of chocolates and was offering it to those on the right, and left, and above, and below. Just because it felt good to give.<\/p>\n

\"IMG<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

We got to our seats really early and had \u00a0plenty of time to check out the playbill \u2014 I have never heard of this ballet company before.<\/p>\n

Le Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo is an all male drag ballet company that has nothing to do with Monte Carlo. The company got going in the 70\u2019s mostly in off-off-Broadway spaces in New York. They stage versions of classical ballet mocking its rigid gender, size, and partnering requirements. In Trocks’ versions, male and female parts are performed by men of all colors, shapes, and sizes with unimaginable partnering. The dancers show not only incredible ballet technique and strength, they mix in pantomime and acting. What they do is definitely attractive to ballet aficionados as there is a good deal of insider jokes that not everyone would get but it would be also entertaining to those foreign to dance. They are great dancers \u2014 one has to be perfect executing the moves correct way to perform them incorrectly \u2014 and great comedians.\u00a0This performance brought to mind Igor Moiseyev Ballet<\/a>, a Russian dance company, that also goes against conventional ideas of ballet body, partnering, and repertoire.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Each of the 17 Trockadero dancers \u00a0has a male and female Russian alter ego. At first, I didn\u2019t get meanings of the names but the bios gave them \u2014 an Aha! moment. Here\u2019re some according to the playbill:<\/p>\n

Nina Enimenimynimova<\/strong>\u00a0is an elfin charmer likened to a lemon souffle on a brink of a total collapse.<\/p>\n

Irina Kolesterolikova<\/strong>\u00a0was discovered adrift in a basket on the Neva River along with Rasputin\u2019s boot, grand jet\u00e9d into Tsar\u2019s box during her debut in Mariinsky, impaling a Grand Duchess, and banished from Russia. Her famous warm up consists of a martini and an elevator.<\/p>\n

Varvara Laptopova<\/strong>\u00a0carries a first prize award from Pan Siberian Czardash and Kazotski Festival<\/em> for artistic mis-interpretation.<\/p>\n

Sonia Leftova<\/strong>\u00a0abandoned her film career after starring in films like Back to Back, Thigh and Blisters, Screams from a Carriage<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Vera Namethattunenova<\/strong>\u00a0was a dresser to a great ballerina and started dancing when she locked her mistress in the armoire and went on to dance in her place.<\/p>\n

Alla Snizova<\/strong>\u00a0developed serious allergy problems and could dance only short pieces.<\/p>\n

Maya Thickenthighya<\/strong>, her torque was applied to the running of Generator 14 near the Gorsky Dam.<\/p>\n

There were\u00a0The Legupsky brothers<\/strong>, who were not really brothers, nor could they tell the difference between a pirouette and a jet\u00e9 but they did move rather nicely and they fit into the costumes.<\/p>\n

And speaking of costumes \u2014 those size 15 point\u00e9 shoes were impressive!<\/p>\n

Before the curtain went up, the mood was set by the voice rolling exagerrated Russian \u201cr\u2019s\u201d announcing that “in accordance with the greatest traditions of Russian ballet there will be changes to this program.” Warnings of the dancers\u2019 moods, names, biographies, food preferences, substitutions followed.<\/p>\n

The show opened with the second act of Swan Lake<\/a>, a nod to the 19th century Russian classical ballet. For most part, it was obvious that those were grown men in tutus and tiaras dancing en point\u00e9. But some of them had feet, and arches, and extensions that would made any professional female ballet dancer envious and make you forget that it was a parody and not a classical version.\u00a0The original Lev Ivanov<\/a>\u2019s choreography was mixed with pantomime that involved exaggerated makeup, infamous floss dance, skillfully orchestrated mishaps, and some audible tantrums of dancers. \u00a0<\/p>\n

The second act started with The\u00a0Harlequinade<\/a>\u00a0pas de deux which was not as funny but extremely complicated technically. Two dancers, I believe they were Long Zou and Takaomi Yoshino \u2014 those are their real and not stage names \u2014 were brilliant technically and artistically. The audience was breathless and rewarded them with a standing ovation.<\/p>\n

In La Troviatiara pas de Cinq, channelling Guiseppe Verdi\u2019s La Traviata<\/a>, three giant women were partnered with two short men. The difference in height was so drastic that male characters were easily ducking under the outstretched leg of a female character turning en point\u00e9 in arabesque.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The third ballet of the second act, The Dying Swan<\/a>, started with a spotlight frantically searching the stage \u2014 right and left \u2014 for a dancer. Probably that searching spotlight was a bow to Anna Pavlova<\/a> for whom this piece was originally choreographed by Mikhail Fokine<\/a> at the start of the 20\u2019th century. The story has it that during Pavlova\u2019s funeral the spotlight was shining onto the empty stage as the Camille Saint-Sa\u00ebns\u2019s music was playing. Finally Trocks’ spotlight stumbled on a stalky muscular swan bour\u00e9eing across the stage \u2014 signature fluid arms \u2014 in a tutu endlessly shedding feathers onto the stage and leaving a trail behind the somewhat gliding neckless swan. It seems like a lot of Fokine’s choreography was there but it was static. When the mostly posing swan finally decided to move, something went wrong, his knees wobbled making hims squat en point\u00e9 in a wide second position \u2014 only those who know would understand how hard it was to stay upright in this position en point\u00e9 \u2014 and it looked like he threw out his back. Hunched and grabbing his waist, the dancer tried to run off the stage, but got tangled in the wings, and eventually was pushed back by someone to finish the performance. The stalky swan fell, got up, dusted himself off, and tried to stick some feathers back to the costume. He looked up to the audience for understanding and support. The pantomime there \u2014 people, you feel my pain \u2014 was amazing.<\/p>\n

The final act was an underwater scene from The Little Humpback Horse,<\/a> another Russian fairytale<\/a> ballet. It looked like most of the troupe was on stage. Their point\u00e9 work was impressive, their energy was spilling into the audience, those multiple fouettes, the extensions, the artistry making everything look so easy and fun, the costumes \u2014 jellyfish being my favorite.<\/p>\n

Surprisingly, we were allowed take pictures during the performances \u2014 only videotaping and flash photography were prohibited. I got so excited: how great \u2014 I will be taking pictures and lots of them! But the artistry and comedy were so contagious that I forgot about the camera and and the phone. No, I didn\u2019t. But I didn’t want to waste a single moment looking through a lens. I couldn\u2019t miss any of the real thing.<\/p>\n

\"IMG<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now The Trocks are on a tour all over the country and the world<\/a>. Can\u2019t wait for them to come back to New York.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lizzie saw an ad for Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo in one of The New Yorker issues lying around the house and got four tickets including Charlotte, me, and one of her friends. She knew the show was the day after her wisdom teeth …<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1825,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juliacore.com\/beyondthebarre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/juliacore.com\/beyondthebarre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/juliacore.com\/beyondthebarre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juliacore.com\/beyondthebarre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juliacore.com\/beyondthebarre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1829"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"https:\/\/juliacore.com\/beyondthebarre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1829\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1859,"href":"https:\/\/juliacore.com\/beyondthebarre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1829\/revisions\/1859"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juliacore.com\/beyondthebarre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juliacore.com\/beyondthebarre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juliacore.com\/beyondthebarre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juliacore.com\/beyondthebarre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}