The Trocks have done it again! In their second programme they deliver a delightfully comic interpretation of Les Sylphides, before exploding onto the stage – all flowing skirts, sparkling headdresses and lashes for days – in playful explorations of Spanish pastiche in Majisimas and Paquita.
This week the indomitable Trocks make their return to the Peacock Theatre stage and regale audiences with a second programme, running from the 12th – 17th September, presenting an inspired and colourful selection of works based on Fokine, Petipa and Balanchine.
The programme opens with an adaptation of Les Sylphides, a short abstract ballet from 1907 that was inspired by the mysterious atmospheres of earlier romantic ballets such as La Sylphide and Giselle. With choreography by Michel Fokine and set to music by Chopin, the ballet has no narrative beyond ethereal air spirits dancing by moonlight with a lone man. The Trocks are scintillating to watch in this “romantic reverie,” performing with the utmost grace and precision one minute, before tumbling into impeccably timed pratfalls the next. Some of the funniest moments in Les Sylphides are derived from the corps de ballet either awkwardly waddling, penguin-like, across the stage to assume new starting positions, or spending most scenes in entirely static positions on the floor, slowly losing the will to live as a result.
Following on from Les Sylphides is a glitzy, vivacious take on the pas de trois from Paquita, a notable excerpt from the 1846 romantic ballet, originally choreographed by Mazilier but then revised by Marius Petipa a year later. Set to music by Ludwig Minkus, this pas de trois serves up flirtatious silliness and offers a taste of the stylized Spanish-themed splendour that they later capitalize on in the final ballet of the evening, Majisimas. In Vivaldi Suite, the Trocks take a brief detour from the romantic era to revel in the stark elegance of Balanchine’s method, performing in shimmering leotards to a striking musical backdrop of Vivaldi. This is a breath-taking homage to neoclassical dance, at points reminding me of Christopher Wheeldon’s minimalist one-act ballet Within the Golden Hour. As with their first programme, Robert Carter once again gives a hilarious turn as his melodramatic alter ego Olga Supphozova in The Dying Swan, fluttering across the stage and clutching hopelessly at fallen feathers before folding in on himself in clumsy self-conscious defeat.
The grand finale of the evening is Majisimas, a vibrant love letter to a romanticised 19th century theatrical interpretation of Spain, harking back to popular works such as Don Quixote and Paquita. The music in Majisimas is lifted from the opera “El Cid” by Jules Massenet, providing a lush musical accompaniment to the fiendishly challenging choreography. The Trocks really come into their own in this piece, carrying off countless fouettes with precision and poise.
One of the most joyous aspects of seeing the Trocks on stage is the degree to which the individuality and diversity of company members informs their performances. Indeed, they take immense pride in their approach to equality, diversity and inclusion, and this ethos is inseparable from their artistic practice. In many ways this sets them apart from mainstream ballet companies that still cling to outdated, exclusionary aesthetic requirements and a rigid, unquestioning approach to the gender binary. These are important battles that are still being fought both within the dance world and in the world at large, and although the tide does seem to be changing for the better the Trocks occupy a unique space in this discourse as veteran dancers and pioneers of diversity and acceptance. They are not just an exceptionally skilled ballet troupe; they are radicals and proud of it. As a young queer trans person I am in awe of them and sincerely hope they will keep on Trockin’ for years to come.