By Focus Staff
Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, hailed by “The Guardian” as “the funniest night you’ll ever have at the ballet,” comes to Nashville for a one-night engagement on Feb. 21 at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center’s Jackson Hall.
Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo was founded in 1974 by a group of ballet enthusiasts for the purpose of presenting a playful, entertaining view of traditional classical ballet in parody form and en travesti. Les Ballets Trockadero first performed in late-late shows in Off-Off Broadway lofts.
The Trocks, as they are affectionately known, quickly garnered a major critical essay by Arlene Croce in “The New Yorker” which, combined with reviews in “The New York Times” and “TheVillage Voice,” established the company as an artistic and popular success.
By mid-1975, the Trocks’ inspired blend of their loving knowledge of dance, their comic approach and the astounding fact that men can, indeed, dance en pointe without falling flat on their faces, was being noted beyond New York. Skewering classics from Swan Lake to Paquita, the company has performed in over 34 countries and 600 cities worldwide.
The original concept of Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo has not changed. It is a company of professional male dancers performing the full range of the ballet and modern dance repertoire, including classical and original works in faithful renditions of the manners and conceits of those dance styles. The comedy is achieved by incorporating and exaggerating the foibles, accidents and underlying incongruities of serious dance. The fact that men dance all the parts – heavy bodies delicately balancing on toes as swans, sylphs, water sprites, romantic princesses and angst-ridden Victorian ladies – enhances rather than mocks the spirit of dance as an art form, delighting and amusing the most knowledgeable, as well as novices, in the audience.
If You Go:
Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo
Feb. 21, 2019
TPAC’s Jackson Hall
505 Deaderick St.
Tickets:
615-782-4040
