Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo
Bord Gáis Energy Theatre, Dublin
★★★★⯪
Kicking off this year’s Dublin Dance Festival, Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo reflect how ballet has progressed since the company started in 1970s New York.
Known for their skilful comic twist on classical dance, the Trocks have always mastered the fine balance between serious dancing and spoof, earning respect as men in pointe shoes garnering laughs in classical roles.
This 50th-anniversary tour takes that to another level. In previous years some of the humour came from a slightly rough-around-the-edges technique where an unwanted bent knee here and there added to their quirky charm. Now all of the dancing reflects an infallible craft where the laughs come from impeccably timed moves and gestures.
In act two of Swan Lake the company members ace their steps. Nary a feather falls out of place as Prince Siegfried and Von Rothbart vie for the affections of the swan queen Odette. She shows them who’s boss, in the way only the Trocks can do, by shoving them apart and giving them each a flexed-foot kick. Then the familiar choreography resumes, with gracefully lifted legs and fluttering arms.
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It’s easy to become captivated by their sky-high arabesques and thrilling pirouettes. When mishaps take place they often come out of nowhere. In Swan Lake one dancer stands in the wrong line, flashes a grin and dashes across the stage to the proper position. The authenticity makes the blunder even funnier.
The Trocks also expertly choreograph inside jokes without alienating outsiders. In Go for Barocco the dancers flick their wrists, jut out their hips and tangle themselves into formations that only the iconic George Balanchine would do. While anyone who knows Balanchine’s choreography will find these endlessly humorous, the Trocks’ spot-on style draws in anyone who appreciates good dancing.
In perhaps the greatest nod to their dexterity, they assume female characters with such panache that it becomes nearly impossible to tell that they are really men dressed up dancing as women.
In their Don Quixote pas de deux Takaomi Yoshino (as Vavara Laptopova) executes a jaw-dropping foutte-turn sequence, then performs the rest of the variation with lithe elegance.
And in Walpurgisnacht, a dance harking back to Michel Fokine’s Daphnis et Chloé, from 1912, the lead bacchante Minnie van Driver (danced by Liam Hutt) extends her legs and glides across the floor so effortlessly that she looks like the lead ballerina from any major dance company.
Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo prove how much possibility lies in ballet, regardless of gender. They offer a rollickingly good show with just the right amount of reverence.
Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo are at Bord Gáis Energy Theatre, Dublin, until Friday, May 1st, as part of Dublin Dance Festival and a tour presented by Dance Consortium
