{"id":118722,"date":"2025-10-20T12:23:32","date_gmt":"2025-10-20T16:23:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/?p=118722"},"modified":"2025-10-20T14:00:03","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T18:00:03","slug":"scrutiny-les-ballets-trockadero-blend-comedy-balletic-virtuosity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2025\/10\/20\/scrutiny-les-ballets-trockadero-blend-comedy-balletic-virtuosity\/","title":{"rendered":"SCRUTINY | Les Ballets Trockadero Blend Comedy & Balletic Virtuosity"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Les
Les Ballet Trockadero de Monte Carl dancers (Photo: Zoran Jelenic)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

ShowOne Productions: Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo \u2014 50th Anniversary Tour, Wintergarden Theatre, Oct. 18 and 19, 2025.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

When I first saw Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo in the 1990s at the old Premiere Dance Theatre, it was dance comedy.<\/p>\n

They had taken well known ballet showpieces and turned them on their ear with clever parody. There was enough of the original choreography intact that anyone who knew the canon could recognize what was being spoofed, and the wit was always delivered with style.<\/p>\n

Fast forward 50 years.<\/p>\n

The company is now touring in its 50th-anniversary celebration, and a major evolution has occurred.<\/p>\n

Les Ballet Trockadero is no longer just a comedy troupe of men on pointe with hairy chests and underarm hair poking through the tutus.<\/p>\n

It is a legitimate ballet company.<\/p>\n

What has added to the comedy is virtuosity and technique \u2014 and frankly, the dancers are dazzling. Not only that, but they are also showing their chops as danseurs nobles.<\/p>\n

The Anniversary Program<\/h2>\n

The current program is generous: two complete acts book-ending the evening, with shorter pieces in between.<\/p>\n

We began with Le Lac des Cygnes (Swan Lake Act II), then moved through Le Corsaire pas de deux, the contemporary Metal Garden choreographed by Se\u00e1n Curran, and The Dying Swan solo, and ended with Paquita Grand Pas Classique.<\/p>\n

Overall, the evening demonstrated just how far the company has come \u2014 from clever spoof to genuine ballet virtuosity.<\/p>\n

\"Les
Les Ballet Trockadero de Monte Carlo, LBT Swan Lake Trio Swimming (Photo: Giovanni Daniotti)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Swan Lake<\/h3>\n

The opening Swan Lake Act II is still the most comic piece on the program, and yes, there\u2019s even a gloomy backdrop with a dark castle on a dark lake, perspective askew of course.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a treasure chest of sight gags and slapstick timing, such as a ballet swan getting slammed in the face or another falling on her keester.<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s Benno, played by Jacques d\u2019Aniels (Antonio Lopez<\/strong>), the Prince\u2019s nerdy friend always causing havoc, or Prince Siegfried himself, performed by an uber dignified Araf Ligupski (Andrea Fabbri<\/strong>) striding on to begin his variation while the music never starts \u2014 the variation that never happens; or Von Rothbart, the elder statesman Yuri Smirnov (Robert Carter<\/strong>) huffing and puffing himself into exhaustion.<\/p>\n

There are the drops and the near misses and a swan doing the \u201cDance of the Little Swans\u201d backwards.<\/p>\n

But beneath the antics lurks a great deal of the Petipa-Ivanov choreography, performed with real virtuosity by Colette Adae as Odette (Jake Speakman<\/strong>) and her partner Ligupski.<\/p>\n

Even here, in this early piece filled with comic antics that entered the repertoire in 1975, you can see the technical ambition that would define the Trocks\u2019 future.<\/p>\n

\"Les
Les Ballet Trockadero de Monte Carl dancers (Photo: Zoran Jelenic)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Shorter Works<\/h2>\n

Le Corsaire pas de deux<\/h3>\n

In Le Corsaire pas de deux, which the Trocks started dancing in 2010, Mikhail Mudkin (Raydel Caceres<\/strong>) and Maya Thikenthighya (Peter Gwiazda<\/strong>) delivered an exciting, rendition of this gala-favorite showpiece. It wasn\u2019t perfect, but it is also extremely challenging.<\/p>\n

Of course there was that dash of self-aware humour, but the technique had teeth.<\/p>\n

Mudkin thrilled the crowd with tours on l\u2019air, saut de basques and jet\u00e9s entrelac\u00e9, while his formidable partner tossed off piqu\u00e9 tours en man\u00e8ge, fouett\u00e9s en tourant and pirouettes en dehors\/en dedans.<\/p>\n

And let us not forget the spectacular lifts with Mudkin hoisting Thickenthighya head level in the air!<\/p>\n

Metal Garden<\/h3>\n

Noted American choreographer Se\u00e1n Curran set Metal Garden on his own company in 2001 and it was taken into the Trocadero repertoire in 2005.<\/p>\n

The contemporary work is a droll diversion for three men: Vyacheslau Legupski (Vincent Brewer<\/strong>), William Vanilla (Liam Hutt<\/strong>) and Nicholas Khachafallenjar (A.J. David<\/strong>), and three women: Gerd T\u00f6rd (Matias Dominguez Escrig<\/strong>), Marina Plezegtovstageskaya (Antonio Lopez<\/strong>) and Anya Marx (Shohei Iwahama<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

The women were wearing skirts of varying lengths and the men are in pants. All sported quite ridiculous wigs.<\/p>\n

Set to a gong-based percussion and prepared piano score by Tigger Benford and Peter T. Jones, the initial amusing choreography captured the bouncy quality of the music in rhythmic walking before breaking out into creating complex patterns with the dancers\u2019 bodies.<\/p>\n

The second section is absolutely hilarious.<\/p>\n

It was all about circular motion \u2014 partners curling and threading through each other\u2019s limbs, constantly creating holes to climb or crawl through, while a tutu-clad ballerina wandered on with a shovel and watering can.<\/p>\n

Metal Garden is funny, but also smart \u2014 proof that the company can handle contemporary movement with precision.<\/p>\n

The Dying Swan<\/h3>\n

The Dying Swan entered the repertoire in 1976 and remains the Trocks\u2019 oldest signature solo.<\/p>\n

Here it was performed by Olga Supphozova (Robert Carter<\/strong>), one of the company\u2019s senior members. The comic touches were all there \u2014 the fluttering arms, the melodramatic death \u2014 but after the virtuosity of Le Corsaire, it felt a little dated, although the solo was certainly milked to death for all the laughs that it could get.<\/p>\n

In Carter\u2019s male avatar, Yuri Smirnov, he made a fine Von Rothbart, but alas, his Supphozova was also part of the Paquita corps de ballet, and frankly, couldn\u2019t keep up with the younger dancers. Perhaps it\u2019s time for her to take her well-deserved final bow and acknowledge that her best years are over.<\/p>\n

Paquita<\/h3>\n

Then came the pi\u00e8ce de r\u00e9sistance: Paquita Grand Pas Classique. The purple Bolshoi-style curtain hung over a radiant corps of ten ballerinas moving with admirable ensemble clarity.<\/p>\n

Comic moments still surfaced \u2014 prima ballerina Varvara Laptopova (Takaomi Yoshino<\/strong>) making a premature entrance, one ballerina taking a comic spill, another corps member realizing she was facing the wrong way \u2014 but this was above all a display of classical technique and virtuosity.<\/p>\n

A central pas de deux with Laptopova and Mudkin, and seven distinct solo showpieces, demonstrated mastery of Petipa Russian imperial technique and the Trocks\u2019 own bravura.<\/p>\n

The cobbled-together music from Pugni, Drigo, Adam and who knows who else, only added to the fun \u2014 but each variation was delivered with conviction, from dainty to dramatic, coy to commanding, sweet to sweeping, these immensely gifted ballerinas brought the audience to their feet.<\/p>\n

Along with the gorgeous and lyrical Laptopova, the other showy variations, each one vastly different from the other, were performed by Tatiana Youbetyabootskya (Andrea Fabbri<\/strong>), Moussia Shebarkarova (Vincent Brewer<\/strong>), Minnie van Driver (Liam Hutt<\/strong>), Anya Marx (Shohei Iwahama<\/strong>), Gerd T\u00f6rd (Matias Dominguez<\/strong>) and Colette Adae (Jake Speakman<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

This performance of Paquita could happily grace any ballet company, that is how good it was.<\/p>\n

\"Les
Les Ballet Trockadero de Monte Carlo (Photo: Vito Lorusso)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Curtain Call<\/h3>\n

Just when one thought the concert was over, and the troupe was taking their final bow, the dancers joined hands, the music came on and they performed as fine a version of Riverdance as one could imagine, toe shoes and all.<\/p>\n

Needless to say, the crowd went wild<\/p>\n

Final Thoughts<\/h2>\n

In the end, comparing Paquita and Le Corsaire to Swan Lake Act II and The Dying Swan is almost impossible \u2014 they belong to different eras of the Trocks\u2019 identity.<\/p>\n

Whether the company\u2019s fans will embrace this new balance of virtuosity and comedy remains to be seen, but for me, the Trocks have grown from a sketch-comedy concept into a serious, credible ballet company.<\/p>\n

I came originally to laugh. Now I leave cheering.<\/p>\n

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Les Ballet Trockadero is no longer just a comedy troupe of men on pointe with hairy chests and underarm hair poking through the tutus; it is a legitimate ballet company.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":73,"featured_media":118725,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[41660,445,41556,20,52,63],"tags":[35514],"yst_prominent_words":[35510,35598,35509,35597,35513],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/10\/Copy-of-REVIEW-2025-10-20T121246.322.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-uSS","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118722"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/73"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118722"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118722\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":118734,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118722\/revisions\/118734"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/118725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118722"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=118722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}