Never tell a Trock he’s mocking ballet. You could end up with a pointe shoe in the eye. It also means — excusing the pun — that you’ve totally missed the point.
For the uninitiated, as in uninitiated into a fervently loyal cult, a Trock is a member of the world-beloved, all-male comic ballet troupe Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, which returns to Toronto Friday for three performances as part of its current cross-Canada tour.
For more than four decades, the Trocks, as they’re universally known to fans, have been delighting audiences with hilariously skewed renditions of ballet classics. Far from mocking their inspirations, the Trocks pay homage to classical ballet’s technical refinement yet decidedly odd tropes and conventions.
The company’s name deliberately evokes the early- to mid-20th-century era, when troupes of expatriate, post-Revolutionary Russian dancers ignited a mania for ballet in Western Europe and beyond. It explains why members of the Trocks, who hail from around the globe, adopt phonetically funny, pseudo-Russian names.
Add plenty of rhinestones, industrial-strength mascara, comically calculated missteps, heaps of diva-ish personality and the improbable sight of men in tutus on their tippie toes, and you have all the ingredients for a side-splittingly marvellous night at the theatre.
What began in 1974 as a bunch of guys in an Off-Off Broadway loft aping ballerinas in a burlesque-like send-up of classical ballet has evolved into a remarkably sophisticated dance troupe. They can bourrée with the best of them while evoking the flavour of an era when ballerinas were noted as much for their larger-than-life personalities, for their ability to project and connect, as for their actual technique; in short, an era when ballet wholeheartedly aimed to delight.
“A lot of dance now is not fun or interesting for a general audience,” says Tory Dobrin, who joined the Trocks as a dancer in 1980 and morphed into the role of artistic director in the early 1990s. “Most of our audiences are not regular dance-goers and we really want them to enjoy what we’re doing.”
As with any high-stylized performing art, the illusion is fragile. Ballet is always teetering on the brink of silliness. Counterintuitively perhaps, this makes what the Trocks do much harder. Cheap shots will rarely hit the funny button.
“For the joke to work you also have to be able to dance very well,” says Cuban-born and trained Carlos Hopuy.
The secret of the Trocks’ success rests in the virtuosity of the dancers and, for all the antics, their dedication to the art.
“Each and every one of us is a complete ballet nerd,” says veteran member Robert Carter, who dances under the stage names Olga Supphozova and Yuri Smirnov. “We absolutely love what we do.”
For Carter, who became fascinated by dancing “en pointe” as a preteen ballet student in Charleston, S.C., this means steeping himself in the art form’s heritage, poring over photos and films of legendary ballerinas. One of these happens to be Canada’s own Evelyn Hart, who was invited to teach a company class for the Trocks on their last Toronto visit.
“Their understanding of the sophistication of pointe work is a unique experience to work with,” says Hart. “Usually male dancers aren’t forced to discover that depth of specificity. I sensed such an honest desire to learn and excel. The men were a joy to teach.”
At one time, the Trocks attracted dancers who, because of size, shape or technical limitations, could not find work elsewhere. While the technical level is now impressive, size and shape do remain a factor.
At just five-foot-five, Hopuy admits that his options, despite competition gold medal-winning technical ability, would have been limited, but having seen the Trocks on video, “it became my dream to dance with them.” His wish came true in 2012 and Toronto audiences will have a chance to see what a formidable ballerina Hopuy makes when he dances Le Corsaire pas de deux.
“And I get to perform all the time, all over the world,” says Hopuy.
Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo is at the Winter Garden Theatre, 189 Yonge St., Feb 10 & 11; ticketmaster.ca or 1-855-985-2787.
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