They’re one part Ballet Russe, one part Kids in the Hall — with better posture. Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo blends classical ballet with classical comedy, to present a unique mashup of dance that’s as satisfying for the dance newcomer as it is rewarding to lovers of classical ballet. Here’s five things you should know about them, from their artistic director Tory Dobrin.
1. What can audiences expect to see at a Trockadero show?
It’s an all-male comedy ballet company — good dancing, good comedy, lots of fun and a boisterous atmosphere in the audience. The dancers in the company tend to be class clown type people, so in the rehearsal process, we let it expand and contract in relationship to who’s doing it. We’re not a museum, so we can change things around quite a bit, depending on who’s doing the role — not the actual ballet steps, but the projection of the comedy. That does change.
2. Is it a good show for dance newcomers?
It’s actually really great, because a woman who may love ballet can bring her husband who may hate ballet — if you want to deal in stereotypes. It’s really good for an awesome night out. It’s really good if you’re dating someone and want to see if they have a sense of humour, so you can take them to this performance and see how they react to it. Lately it’s become something really good for an introduction (to classical dance) to children — children old enough to like theatre.
Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo
3. Do you guys make fun of the whole Russian roots of classical ballet?
The whole thing about the history of ballet in North America is based on the Russian school, which came over in the early part of the 1900s. So we make fun of all of that. It’s an homage to how it was way back when (you had to be Russian to get taken seriously in the dance world). People had to change their names for instance — Patricia Denise, for example, was the woman I studied with in Los Angeles, (and) she had to change her name to Alexandra Denisova. We have fun with all of that.
4. You have an all-male company, who can dance en pointe, like ballerinas. Is that hard?
You have to work at it. So, is it hard for a woman to stand en pointe? Yeah. And even harder for a man. But that’s not the main thrust of what we’re doing. It’s kind of interesting; it really feels good, actually, to do it really well. But is it hard? Yeah, it’s hard.
5. Your company has been based in New York since it was founded in 1974. Why do you have Monte Carlo in your name?
Around 1909, there was a man who brought some Russian imperial dancers to Paris and he called his company the Ballet Russe. They were very instrumental in the 1900s in setting style and also I guess they were like the Madonna of their generation. They were trendsetters. (They) exposed Western Europeans to a lot of things they hadn’t seen (before), especially Russian folklore and colour and maybe excess. He died in 1930, and when he died, several people tried to get the company, Ballet Russe, back together. The principality of Monte Carlo offered some of his inheritors a home there, so they started calling themselves the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. At the same time, there was another company floating around calling themselves the Original Ballet Russe so there was this big competition, so we kind of just tacked Monte Carlo onto our name to pay homage to that. Only hard-core ballet fans would get that, but it also does kind of lend a kind of exoticness to what we’re doing, which is nice.
Les Ballets Trockadero perform Jan. 16 and 17 at the Jubilee Auditorium. Info: Albertaballet.com
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