LES VISITEURS DU SOIR | Les ballets Trockadéro de Monte Carlo

LES BALLETS TROCKADERO DE MONTE CARLO, Biography

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 DE MONTE CARLO first performed in the 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, and combined with reviews in The New York Times and The Village 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. Articles and notices in publications such as Variety, Oui, The London Daily Telegraph , as well as a Richard Avedon photo essay in Vogue, made the Company nationally and internationally known.

The 1975-76 season was a year of growth and full professionalization. The Company found management, qualified for the National Endowment for the Arts Touring Program, and hired a full-time teacher and ballet mistress to oversee daily classes and rehearsals. Also in this season, they made their first extended tours of the United States and Canada--packing, unpacking, and repacking tutus and drops, stocking giant sized toe shoes by the case; running for planes and chartered buses all became routine parts of life.

Since those beginnings, the Trocks have established themselves as a major dance phenomenon throughout the world. They have participated in dance festivals in: Holland, Madrid, New York, Paris, Spoleto, Turin, and Vienna.

There have been television appearances as varied as: a Shirley MacLaine special, the "Dick Cavett Show," "What's My Line?" "Real People," "On-Stage America," and with Kermit and Miss Piggy on their show "Muppet Babies;"

...and have had their own solo specials on national networks in Japan and Germany, as well as a French television special with Julia Migenes. A documentary was filmed and aired internationally in 1998 by the acclaimed British arts program, The South Bank Show.

In 1999, the Company was featured in the PBS program The Egg, about arts in America (which won an Emmy award for Christopher Noey, who directed and produced the segment) and also appeared in a BBC Television Omnibus feature on the world of ballet, hosted by Jennifer Saunders. Several performances were taped in December 2000 by a consortium of Dutch, French and Japanese TV networks at the Maison de la Danse in Lyon, France, for worldwide broadcast and DVD distribution.

The Trocks' numerous tours have been both popular and critical successes - with their frenzied annual schedules including: five tours to Australia and New Zealand, nineteen to Japan (where their annual summer tours have created a nation-wide cult following and a fan club), eight to South America, three tours to South Africa, and thirty-nine tours of Europe.

In the United States, the Company has become a regular part of the college and university circuit in addition to regular dance presentations in cities throughout 48 of the 50 states. Increasingly, the Company is presenting longer seasons, which have included: six weeks a the Metropolitan Theater in Buenos Airs, four weeks at Berlin’s Schiller Theater, 3 weeks at Hamburg’s Thalia Theater, London’s Peacock Theater, Vienna’s Ronacher Theater, two weeks at Sydney’s State Theater, Melbourne’s Victorian Arts Center, Johannesburg's State Theater, one week at Caracas’ Teresa Careño Cultural Center, Lisbon’s Belem Cultural Center, Lyon’s Maison de la Danse, Madrid’s Theatro Albeniz and Amsterdam’s Stadsschouwberg.

During the Company's 25th anniversary in 1999/2000, there were gala appearances with dance legend Maya Plissetskaya, Royal Ballet ballerina Leanne Benjamin, and percussion superstar Evelyn Glennie. The Company also performed at the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. and at the Lincoln Center Out of Doors Festival in New York City.

The 30th anniversary of the Trocks during the 2003/2004 season builds on the success of the past. Extended engagements include a weak long season in Paris, performances in Italy, Mexico, Poland, Portugal, Spain, the UK, and tours across the USA and the Far East, including China, Japan and Singapore.

The Company continues to appear in benefits for international AIDS organizations such as DRA (Dancers Responding to AIDS) and Classical Action in New York City, the Life Ball in Vienna, Austria, Dancers for Life in Toronto, Canada, and London’s Stonewall Gala. In addition, The Trocks have given, or participated in special benefit performances for Rochester City Ballet, Connecticut Ballet Theater, and the Gay and Lesbian Community Center in New York City.

Recent additions to the repertory include choreography by: Merce Cunningham, Robert La Fosse, Meg Harper, Agnes de Mille, and Gary Pierce, a restaging in one act of Don Quixote, of a lost M. Petipa ballet, Humpback Horse the pas de deux from the first act of La Bayadere, and Flower Festival Pas de Deux, as well as a revival of Stars & Stripes Forever.

The original concept of LES BALLETS TROCKADERO DE MONTE CARLO has not changed since its inception. 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, 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 audiences.

For the future, there are plans for new works in the repertoire: new cities, states and countries to perform in; and for the continuation of the Trocks original purpose: to bring the pleasure of dance to the widest possible audience. They will, as they have done for thirty years, "Keep on Trockin’."

Extracted from www.trockadero.org

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