Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
Ddepending on how you look at it, Trocks’ ballet company offers light camp, comedy for dance megafans, or an existential question about ballet culture and beauty. Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carloto give the company its full name and name, has been since 1974fifty years in which the concept of attraction, and gender, has changed. A company of 14 strong men (or genderqueers, they now say) wear tutus, pointe shoes and greasepaint, dancing mostly from the old ballet troupe: Swan Lake, Paquita, and more.
He does this in a way that mixes slapstick comedy, built to the core, with a deep love and knowledge of art. It’s both broad and subtle, a wash of lace that evokes the adoration of a ballerina’s beauty; it laughs at ballet tropes and also removes fouettés and arabesques with allegro pointe work. The technical performance is somehow even more impressive because these are not ballerinas from another world but different bodies that look real, imperfect and all. It’s a reminder of how difficult these things are, and that driving is special; we love them.
But what is perfection? Why is one body “suitable” for ballet and another is not? Why does one side or the other seem interesting? How does “natural” beauty differ from cultural beauty? Amazing Takaomi Yoshinotechnical ability, would be very similar to a typical dancer, but one of the taller, less traditional female dancers, Andrea Fabbriin her cat glasses and tutu, she walks with such elan it’s so fun to watch.
The Trocks also play a new role. Séan Curran’s Metal Garden is a modern ballet in Lycra and curly wigs that is effortlessly funny – whether you know about dance or not, we can all identify with the look and feel and laugh when it’s played. But it also makes me ponder why we watch dance and what qualities we might be looking for; and wonderful things that people dedicate themselves to, find joy in and read the meaning of. It’s all very simple, and very classy. That’s why Trocks has been around for so long. It works as a pantomime, and much more.
