Tchaikovsky : Swan Lake (Act 2)
Drigo : Le Corsaire - Pas de Deux
J.S. Bach : Brandenburg Concerto No. 3
Saint-Saëns : The Swan
Minkus : Don Quixote (extracts)
Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte-Carlo
I overheard someone on leaving the theatre exclaim, in an unmistakably pleased tone, "I never thought I'd laugh like that at the ballet!" The thing is, he wasn't so much laughing at the ballet, as laughing at ballet; there's a distinct nuance. I've seen plenty of humorous ballets, where you're invited to laugh at the characters or situations, but a sustained pastiche, not to say parody, of the art itself, that's another kettle of fish entirely, and something the Ballets Trockadero de Monte-Carlo (hereinafter, for brevity's sake, referred to as The Trocks) have been accomplishing with ever-renewed success for forty years.
A good parody requires (on the part of the parodists) both a thorough understanding of, and a real affection for, its subject. As for the audience, a good parody is comprehensible by anybody, but gets funnier the more you know about the subject yourself. The Trocks fill both of these conditions admirably, and it is never more evident than when they are actually performing some of these classic 19th Century ballet standards almost completely straight (if you'll pardon the expression). While their version of Act 2 of Swan Lake almost holds more jokes than steps per square foot of stage, 85% of the performance of the Corsaire pas-de-deux would not have been out of place in any regular ballet performance.
For those who don't know (but really, if you enjoy ballet, there's little excuse for not knowing who the Trocks are) this is a dance company founded in New York City in 1974, for the express purpose of performing the classical repertory with a twist - all the dancers are male, but appear in full, traditional regalia, tutus, tiaras, pointe shoes, the full monty. There is, of course, the basic joke of ballet in drag - the layers of pancake make-up and three-inch long eyelashes do not really conceal conspicuously large feet, sturdier frames than usual, and the odd flash of chest hair - but the meat of it is that it's all done impeccably, except when they plan otherwise. There are the obvious gags - pratfalls, wrong steps, mugging to the audience, dropping the ballerina - and then there are the much less obvious ones, the parodies of style, like Go for Barocco, their pastiche of Balanchine's famous Concerto Barocco, which is a beautifully calculated piece of impertinence from start to finish.
It was good to see new, young faces in the company - quite a few since I last saw them - which have given them, amongst other things, a couple of men who are rather more convincing in the flashier male soloist roles, like Basile, and in Corsaire, than they used to be. They still tend to cast them noticeably shorter than their "female" partners, though, another of the running gags in performance. It's good too to see new repertory from The Trocks. I've grown a little tired of both the Swan Lake and the Dying Swan spoofs, but the show ended with a sort of super-condensed version of Don Quixote, with a couple of the best-known numbers from Act 1, a variant on the Dream Act, and of course the famous pas-de-deux from Act 3, all done with immense relish and tremendous dash. An exhilarating conclusion to another one of the Trocks's assured, inimitable appearances - long may they continue.
[Next : 23rd October]
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