A (Not) Tutu In-Depth Trock History
Please enjoy some highlights from the first 50 years of Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo’s performances & appearances, pointe work & comedy!
Peter Anastos, Anthony Bassae, and Natch Taylor break off from the Trockadero Gloxinia Ballet and present the first performances of Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo at the Westside Discussion Group loft space, starting on September 6th and running for several consecutive weekends.
The highest-of-brows weekly publication cements the Trocks’ distinction from its predecessor while citing Mallarmé’s principles of ‘dance as the theatrical expression of poetry’ and crediting the company’s gender and genre parody as “dead on target and hilarious.”
Trock dancers are photographed by Richard Avedon for Vogue magazine.
Left to right: Bruce Padgett, Zamie Zamora, Anthony Bassae (center dancer), John Martin (down below, almost out of the shot), Natch Taylor (behind Anthony’s arm), Shawn Avery, Clinton Smith, Keith Glancey (in profile below) and Peter Anastos (far right). March 15, 1975
Photograph by Richard Avedon
© The Richard Avedon Foundation
The company is booked at Zellerbach Auditorium for the first of what will be many return visits. CLICK to watch some of the founders, Olga Tchikaboumskaya (Peter Anastos) and Alexis Ivanovitch Lermontov (Natch Taylor), in Swan Lake Act II in Berkeley.
Edward Gorey, famed writer, designer, artist, and ballet aficionado, designs the backdrop for the Trocks’ debut of Giselle. Note the scale figures of Albrecht and Myrtha on the sides!
Tory Dobrin joins the Trocks, performing as “Margot Lowen-Octeyn” and “Adam Baum,” with his first company tour headed to South America. In this studio photo by John L. Murphy, “Margot” is the third sylph from the right.
The mishandling, misinformation and stigma surrounding the AIDS Crisis has lasting effects to this day, particularly for those who suffered personal losses. As a company comprised almost entirely of gay men, the Trocks were disproportionately affected by losing company members who suffered from AIDS-related illnesses. To this day we pay tribute to dancers and friends who were lost by wearing costumes with red ribbons in the work Go For Barocco.
CLICK to watch a clip of Go For Barocco.
Photo by José Luis Marrero Medina
In April the course of the company launches on an upward trajectory with the first of 32* Japan tours, where bonds of friendship and lifelong fans are born. CLICK HERE to visit the Japan branch of the Trocks.
[*as of 2024]
The Trocks appear in clips of live dance performances on the episode “Twinkle Toe Muppets” (Season 4, Ep. 9) while Piggy and Skeeter disagree about whether dance should be beautiful or fun (and they surely reach the obvious conclusion: Both).
CLICK HERE to enjoy the Trocks on a *very* 80’s cartoon.
The fallout of Senator Jesse Helms’ political crusade against ‘obscenity’ in the Arts results in a dwindling number of performances, the inability of American theaters to book the company, as well as a lack of direct funding. The financial effects of the ‘culture wars’ of the 1990’s were rough as the fallout of the AIDS epidemic had already left the company in a raw, vulnerable state.
The company’s first (summertime!) season at *the* Chelsea theater for dance performance: The Joyce Theater. In 2004, after several summertime engagements, the Trocks began what has now become their particular holiday tradition: several weeks at the Joyce over December and January, sending out the old year and ringing in the new with lively crowds and shows.
The Trocks perform on the new Bolshoi stage, as well as taking part in a Gala on the old Bolshoi stage, featuring performances by HET National Ballet, Complexions, Perm Ballet Company, and prima ballerina Natalia Osipova.
Image A: Bolshoi “Grand Pas” Award 2004.
Image B: The Bolshoi Theatre, photo by Dmitriy Guryanov (Wikipedia).
Click through slides for:
*Critic’s Circle Dance Award 2006 – Outstanding Repertoire
*TMA Award 2006 (now known as UK Theatre Award)
*Premio Positano 2007
The Trocks performed the adagio from Vivaldi Suite and the iconic Dying Swan solo at the London Palladium for then-Prince Charles (the future King Charles III) at the annual Royal Variety Performance, a live variety show and televised fundraiser for the Royal Variety Charity. CLICK to see the Trocks at the Royal Variety Performance.
Forty years of company archives, as collected by General Director Eugene McDougle, are acquired by the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts in July.
The Trocks’ tour in June takes them to Genova, Italy, where they perform accompanied by the Orchestra of the Teatro Carlo Felice, conducted by Nada Matošević. The cost and availability of live music ensembles is a rare treat that the Trocks will have on a handful of occasions over the next decade.
Photo by Marcello Orselli
Though the Trocks can’t win ‘em all, it is always and forever an honor to be nominated! (We are still planning to take home “Miss Congeniality” – eventually.)
The cinéma vérité-style documentary film, Rebels on Pointe, directed by Bobbi Jo Hart, premieres at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival in February. From imdb.com: “Rebels on Pointe ultimately celebrates our shared humanity through universal themes of identity, dreams, family, love, loss, determination and resilience… proving that a ballerina is not merely a woman dancing, but an act of revolution in a tutu.”
Awards for Rebels on Pointe:
*Best Documentary – San Francisco Dance Film Festival
*Best Documentary – 2017 San Luis Obispo International Film Festival
*Best Documentary – 2017 Inside Out LBGT Film Festival
CLICK to watch the Rebels on Pointe Official Trailer
Trocks approach to ballet, blending physical expression and storytelling with humor, is taught in dance classes at senior and LGBTQ community centers in NYC, including in Greenwich Village where the company got its start.
In April a retrospective titled Gender Neutral, curated from the personal archives of Trockadero co-founder Natch Taylor, opened at the National Museum of Dance and Hall of Fame in Saratoga Springs, NY.
The documentary Ballerina Boys directed by Chana Gazit and Martie Barylick airs on the PBS program American Masters.
A new program is born thanks to the leadership support of Denise Sobel: guest choreographers are invited to work with the Trock dancers in an intensive/incubator model, with creative exploration being the primary goal, incorporating pointe work and humor if possible. Durante Verzola is the first choreographer of the Institute, with the resulting work, SYMPHONY, having a NYC premiere in 2024.
Opening the 50th anniversary year with a 36-city US tour and building it out with international dates in Japan, Canada, Germany, and Greece, opening the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival during Pride Month, floating through a nearly-sold-out weekend at the Kennedy Center Opera House, live orchestra performances at the Kennedy Center and Detroit Opera, and rounding out the year by bringing it home to The Joyce Theater…the Trocks’ cup is very full and we raise it to our fans, friends, and supporters: here’s to the next 50 years!
CLICK to watch excerpts of PAQUITA in the historic Ted Shawn Theatre for a Jacob’s Pillow press call.
Photo: Christopher Duggan; courtesy of Jacob’s Pillow.
