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Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo

Peacock Theatre, London, 14-25 September 2010

Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo

dancers:
Emanuel Abruzzo, Robert Carter, Claude Gamba, Paul Ghiselin, Joshua Grant, Brock Hayhoe, Aviad Herman, Chase Johnsey, Christopher Lam, Roberto Lara, Davide Marongiu, Fernando Medina Gallego, Christopher Montoya, Raffaele Morra, Giovanni Ravelo, Or Sagi, Long Zou

artistic director:
Tory Dobrin

Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, the troupe that proves ballerinas don't have to be female, is back in London following a two year absence.

Founded in 1974, the Trocks (as they are affectionately known) employ male dancers for all of their roles, and use their supreme knowledge of ballet to both satirise and elevate the art form.

Across any of their programmes we can look forward to hilarious routines and superlative dancing, and the strength of their current programme, one of two being shown at Sadler’s Wells’ Peacock Theatre this autumn, lies in the extent to which these two elements are successfully balanced.

The first work, ChopEniana, is a series of seven dances set to nocturnes, waltzes and mazurkas by Frederic Chopin. The joy is not so much in the deliberate mistakes themselves, such as a dancer standing directly in the path of the prima ballerina, but on how the ‘before’ and ‘after’ are carried off. As one dancer ‘accidentally’ sends another spinning, the latter demonstrates marvellous control to give the impression that they have absolutely none over their movement. One senses that these dancers had to rehearse getting it exactly right before they could afford the luxury of deliberately getting it wrong.

Brock Hayhoe as the Prince Siegfried style character (for once a man plays a man) is particularly appealing. He takes the tendency for Siegfrieds to seem relatively passive a step further by appearing totally gormless, but he demonstrates a straightness of back, a stroke of arm and a movement of leg that feel entirely authentic. It is also a nice touch that as he takes his bow he closely inspects the bottle of wine he is presented with.

After the first interval, the audience is treated to ‘a post modern dance movement essay’ (the programme descriptions are deliberately pretentious) entitled Patterns in Space. The three dancers, who don parodies of contemporary costumes, prance around aimlessly and lose themselves in the music (even when none is playing) while two instrumentalists contribute a soundtrack supposedly inspired by John Cage. This sees them donning dead pan faces to play paper bags, bubble wrap, egg whisks and skipping ropes to cries of laughter from the audience.

The Grand Pas Classique witnesses no excessive jokes from the performers, Chase Johnsey and Claude Gamba, but the evening’s tone enables them to demonstrate a greater degree of panache than serious ballet might ever permit, and the result is very effective. Similarly, while La Vivandiere Pas de Six sees a six foot six prima ballerina (Joshua Grant) towering over her male partner (Long Zhou), the interest lies in the fact that their unconventional sizes prove no hindrance to their ability to dance. Though it is far larger, Grant’s body does not move through space fundamentally differently to that of a real leading lady.

Paul Ghiselin’s Dying Swan with its moulting feathers, overt pecking, knocked knees and premature fall to the ground brings the house down, while the final piece, Raymond’s Wedding, witnesses abundant comic moments alongside some beautiful formations from the corps de ballet. This programme witnesses the Trocks at their very best and though the occasional joke is reprised from earlier shows, this should prove no impediment to one’s enjoyment of the evening.

Programme One (described above) will be performed from 14-19 September, and Programme Two, which includes the Trocks’ famous Swan Lake (Act Two), from 21-25 September.

- Sam Smith