Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo (Zoran Jelenic)
If you’re a fan of the 17th Street High Heel Race, get thee to the Kennedy Center next week for Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo. This dance company’s drag game is “en pointe.”
Since the all-male ballet company’s founding in 1974, the “Trocks” have established a reputation for performing in drag and in pointe shoes. Alberto Pretto has been with the company for six years and says the footwear takes some getting used to. It isn’t easy on male bodies.
“Pointe shoes are really pretty, but they really are supposed to be worn by female dancers,” he says. “We do carry more weight than a ballerina would, so it’s more invasive on our bodies.”
As the saying goes however, beauty is pain. “It’s like with heels,” Pretto says. “You’re going to look beautiful, but it’s going to hurt eventually.”
Returning to the Kennedy Center for a two-night engagement, the Trocks will dance to live accompaniment from the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra, a rarity for this touring company.
“We don’t usually perform with a live orchestra so that’s kind of a treat for us,” Pretto says, clarifying that the Trocks always give it “100 percent,” but live music adds something to the show that can’t be replicated with recorded music. “From a performer level, I feel that with a live orchestra I can enjoy the music more, feel it more, and so therefore, dance better.”
The program includes works from Swan Lake, Le Corsaire Pas De Deux, Esmerelda Pas de Six, and Don Quixote. These are classics, certainly not choreography for amateurs.
Pretto says all of the dancers are classically trained, which makes it that much more amusing when they infuse comedy into the show. “We’ll be doing some traditional choreography and then all of a sudden one dancer will split and maybe do a flat fall or there will be a joke out of that,” he says.
There’s also room for spontaneity in a Trocks show, where the intense makeup and costumes help dancers feel free to express themselves and have fun with their roles. “We have a pretty strictly choreographed approach, until something funny happens,” Pretto says. “If you screw up something in a traditional ballet company, everyone will notice and it will be an embarrassing moment for you. But for us, we can make a joke out of it and laugh.”
That classical approach with room for comedy stands in stark contrast to the Trocks’ early days, when it was just a group of guys who loved ballet—not the trained dancers who now make up the cast. “Now the company is getting stronger and the quality of the dancing is really high, but we never forget that concept of the punchline,” Pretto says.
While seeing heavy male bodies perform dainty choreography adds its own element of humor, they’re not all in tutus. Dancers each portray a male and a female character. As with any self-respecting drag artist, the costumes, wigs, and make-up are a huge aspect of the Trocks’ performance.
“It’s a lot of fun to portray these ballerinas in tutus,” Pretto says. “Depending on the role and the ballet we’re dancing, we have different costumes. Sometimes we have a Russian flat tutu, or we have a more romantic tutu, but we have fabulous headdresses and beautiful scenery and it’s all part of the fun of performing as a Trock.”
It’s entertainment that can appeal to both regular ballet-goers, and those who frequent drag brunches. Kids, members of the LGBTQ community, and your culturally-dense friends can also enjoy the production. “It’s also a good show for someone who knows ballet really well and can find all the little references and exaggerations that we bring to the show in our performance,” Pretto says.
Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo comes to The Kennedy Center March 21-22. Tickets are available for purchase here.
