The Trocks Review
December 17, 2024 | The Joyce Theater – New York, NY, USA
Drama, tutus, tiaras, and 5 o’clock shadows, Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo is back at The Joyce Theater. The troupe celebrates 50 years of fabulous dancing, expanding from their downtown dance beginnings to a globally touring company.
Throughout the years, the Trocks have remained the queens – quite literally – of satirical dance, and a ticket to their show is still a prescription for a very good time.
The Trocks Review
In the double bill program, the Trocks opened with the classic Giselle (Act II), where we find Hilarion, renamed Hans, and Giselle’s lover Albrecht, renamed Albert, skulking around Giselle’s grave.
Giselle is not the most ridiculous of the classical story ballets (at least there isn’t a flock of human/swan hybrids) but it certainly isn’t absent of absurdity. Whether it’s the abundance of fake flowers being tossed off stage or Giselle’s initiation into a vengeful cult obsessed with men even after death, there’s plenty of content to choose from and The Trocks do it so well.
Outrageous caricatures of ghostly apparitions haunting men until the break of dawn, the Wilis are outfitted in Mike Gonzalez’s dusty grey costumes in place of the classic white, with teased-out wigs and lipstick drawn into crooked smiles. Their entrances are loud and clumsy, and their hands form into claws as they bare their teeth like vampires. Between using plastic shovels to awaken Giselle from her grave and falling asleep during her pas de deux, the corps de ballet is undead and delightful.
Varvara Laptopova, the “Russian” stage-name of dancer Takaomi Yoshino in en travesti, transports us with Myrtha’s iconic bourrées to Edward Gorey’s eerily designed gravesite. Typically achieved with hummingbird finesse, Yoshino’s wide-stepped pointework made for a robust Queen of the Wilis. Bounding grand jetés and forceful double saut de basque seal the deal for an exceptionally bravura take on the role.
Packed with punchy jokes, some more inside ballet quips than others, there’s no shortage of laughter.
But it’s the dancer’s serious unseriousness, their full commitment to the bit that grounds the work and allows us to escape into their world.
It’s a textured concept with layer upon layer of satire: the jabs at the dramatic Russian ballerinas, the gender swapping athleticism, the much-needed mockery of classical ballet.
And on top of all of it, most of the steps are true to their origin.
Lovingly danced by Anya Marx (Shohei Iwahama), the titular character Giselle endures, amidst all the tomfoolery, as a heartbroken protector of her mortal lover. And she still must do, among other difficult moves, an iconic adagio sequence: the slothy, dramatic developpe side into a slow, dipped arabesque promenade. In pointe shoes!
Iwahama succeeds at this step as well as the deliciously deep pliés matched in depth by his partner danced by Raydel Caceres (pseudonym Mikhail Mudkin).
Is everything technically perfect? No. But when the dancers conquer those seminal steps, we cheer them on and if they stumble, we immediately forgive. As the ballet world’s unofficial mirror, the Trocks have earned it.
Post-intermission, the stage was stripped of sets and backdrop to reveal six dancers in designer Ken Busbin’s crisp, blue and silver tutus for the world premiere of Durante Verzola’s Symphony. Assisted by Erika Johnson’s vivid lighting, a beatific buzz filled the air.
As if we were at the Palais Garnier, the beautiful reveal after the curtain’s rising urged audience members to gasp and applaud. There’s something about a clean stage and glimmering tiaras that set off a crowd.
Verzola’s deeply intrinsic musicality, as witnessed in his previous works at Miami City Ballet School where he is Resident Choreographer, was on full display in Symphony’s four-movement structure purposefully reminiscent of Balanchine’s Symphony in C.
Verzola understands the impact of formation, mapping the dancers in pleasing symmetrical cartography while giving them sparkling footwork and daring off balance transitions.
The result is sharp, intelligent dancing paired with tender lusciousness: the dancer’s legs working like a duck’s under water while their upper bodies drape like velvet.
While I love the slapstick that punctuates their classic works, it was refreshing to see a more subtle take on the Trockadero charms.
Verzola allows a disgruntled look and a hands-on-hips moment here and there, but the balance is heavier on the technique and boy, do the dancers shine.
Andrea Fabbri, embracing his alter ego Tatiana Youbetyabootskaya, embodied the bold, courageous dancing of the best New York City Ballet dancers with a wingspan like Michael Phelps, squeaky clean technique, and cartoonish blinking eyelids under Miss Piggy sized lashes. Fabbri is someone to watch.
Jake Speakman (Colette Adae) and Raphael Spyker (Medulli Lobotomov) are eloquent as the lead couple; Speakman is grace and Spyker a steady and composed partner.
Kevin Garcia (Elvira Khababgallina) and Yoshino (Laptopova) lead their own movements with verve. Garcia has a soft as caramel upper body and Yoshino, after delivering a physically demanding Myrtha in Act 1, returns with just as much power.
Reaching its denouement in Balanchine fashion, Verzola caps off Symphony with all the dancers on stage for a grand finale equipped with a front and center display of turns akin to Symphony in C’s nerve-wracking closer. And the dancers do it well and with grit.
Throughout, there is an earnest care emanating from them, an unspooled excitement to perform with precision.
It’s a feeling that can’t be bottled and must be shared. Lucky for us, the Trocks are exceedingly generous.
Featured Photo of Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo‘s Jake Speakman in Durante Verzola’s Symphony. Photo by Steven Pisano.
