Les Ballet Trockadero De Monte Carlo UK Tour 2026

Welcome

On behalf of Dance Consortium members, I am delighted to welcome you to this hugely entertaining new tour by the world famous Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo. For those who have seen the company before, welcome back, and for those who are experiencing its work for the first time, you are in for a real treat.

With a repertoire spanning over 50 years, the programme incorporates the company’s unique take on those famous ballet classics, alongside newly commissioned work. The 2026 tour will be the 7th Dance Consortium tour for the company and we look forward to sharing the work with audiences old and new.

Dance Consortium continually strives to present a diverse range of the best international dance from around the globe, and it is an absolute joy to bring this fabulous work to venues across the UK and Ireland. Thanks to support from Arts Council England and Creative Scotland we can share this work with people the length and breadth of the country, including audiences at our newest venues in Wolverhampton, Aberdeen and Blackpool.

As with all Dance Consortium tours, these performances are supported by a range of engagement opportunities including workshops, open rehearsals, touch tours for our visually impaired audiences, makeup seminars and talks with the company. These activities aim to deepen the connections that our audiences have with international artists, and we are hugely grateful to the company for providing these different ways to engage with them, especially on top of the brilliant performances you see on stage.

We are also delighted that the full-length documentary Ballerina Boys will be available to stream for free on

Sadler’s Wells’ Digital Stage for the duration of the tour. The film interweaves original interviews and contemporary and archival performance footage to tell the remarkable history of the company, from its inspiration by the Stonewall Riots of 1969 to The Trocks on tour in the Carolinas, an epicentre of continued struggles for LGBTQ+ rights.

Dance Consortium is committed to supporting the wider dance and touring ecology through extended engagement opportunities and projects. This tour includes Insight Days as part of our successful Future Leaders Programme as well as work placements for students from Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts.

As always, thanks to our member venues for their ongoing commitment to presenting international work of the highest quality and for helping to bring the most exciting companies from the world stage to audiences around the UK and Ireland. We have some brilliant tours planned over the next couple of years including a return visit from the exquisite São Paulo Dance Company, Brazil’s finest dance company who will be touring in Spring 2027.

So, tell your friends and families, spread the word on socials and we look forward to seeing you at another Dance Consortium show in the future.

Until then, sit back and enjoy the performance!

Joe Bates, Chief Executive, Dance Consortium

Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo

For 50 years, the all-male comedy ballet company

Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo (affectionately known as “The Trocks”) has been delighting audiences of all ages at sell-out performances featuring their fabulous sense of fun and their flawless dancing. Originally from New York, the Trocks are now loved world-wide for their sassy spoofs and hilarious homages to classical ballet, where the dancers each transform into two personas, both ballerina and danseur!

Every performance frivolously froths with tutus and testosterone, blush-pink ballet pumps, fierce false eyelashes and prima ballerina attitude. However, what makes this company extraordinarily special is their immaculate technique and daring physicality, surpassed only by their impeccable comic timing.

We came to laugh, but we stayed to worship

— The Telegraph Post show Q&A on opening nights (free for ticket holders)

Running Time:

Approx 2 hrs (including 2 intervals)

London Repertoire includes: Le Lac des Cygnes (Swan Lake Act II) / Interval / Pas de Deux or Modern Work to be announced / Metal Garden (UK Premiere) / Interval / Paquita

Tour Repertoire includes: Le Lac des Cygnes (Swan Lake Act II) / Interval / Pas de Deux or Modern Work to be announced / Go For Barocco / Interval / Valpurgeyeva Noch (“Walpurgisnacht”)

Company Biography

LES BALLETS TROCKADERO DE MONTE CARLO was founded in 1974 by New York City-based ballet enthusiasts in order to present a playful, entertaining view of traditional, classical ballet in parody form and with men performing all of the roles – and in the case of roles usually danced by women: en travesti and en pointe. Founders Peter Anastos, Anthony Bassae, and Natch Taylor broke away from Larry Ree’s Gloxinia Trockadero Ballet to create a dance- and choreographyfocused company. They put on their first shows on the makeshift stage of the West Side Discussion Group, an early gay and lesbian political organization, which was led by future Trockadero General Director Eugene McDougle. The performances were infused with a subversive edge as the country was still a long way from bringing drag performance to a mainstream audience.

The Trocks, as they are affectionately known, soon garnered critical acclaim and cultural cachet in publications with major reach, such as The New Yorker, The New York Times, and the Village Voice. By mid-1975, the company’s inspired blend of dance knowledge, comedy, and athleticism, moved beyond

New York City when the Trocks qualified for the National Endowment for the Arts Touring Program, hired a full-time teacher and ballet mistress, AND made its first extended tours of the United States and Canada. Packing, unpacking, and repacking tutus and drops, stocking giant-sized toe shoes by the case, and running for planes and chartered buses all became routine parts of life. They have been going non-stop ever since, appearing in 43 countries and more than 660 cities worldwide. The company branched out from the vibrant live performances and expanded its scope with an education program in 2016 and the Choreography Institute in November 2023. With so much activity, the Trocks have garnered a dedicated fan base, repeating performances in countries year after year, and continuing to add first-time engagements as the company enters its 50th Anniversary season.

Interest and accolades have accumulated over the years. The Trocks have proved an alluring documentary subject, featured in an Emmy-winning episode of the acclaimed British arts program The South Bank Show; the 2017 feature film Rebels on Pointe; and most recently Ballerina Boys, which aired on PBS American

Masters in 2021. Several of the Trocks’ performances at the Maison de la Danse in Lyon, France were also aired by Dutch, French and Japanese TV networks. Other television appearances have ranged from a Shirley MacLaine special to the Dick Cavett Show, “What’s My Line?” “Real People,” and “On-Stage America.” The dancers also have the distinction of appearing with Kermit and Miss Piggy on “Muppet Babies.”

The company’s awards include a prestigious UK Critics Circle National Dance Award for Best Classical Repertoire (2007) and nomination for Outstanding Company (2016), the Theatrical Managers Award (2006, UK); and the Positano Award for Excellence in Dance (2007, Italy). The company has appeared in multiple galas and benefits over the years, including at the 80th anniversary Royal Variety Performance to aid the Entertainment Artistes’ Benevolent Fund in December 2008, which was attended by members of the British Royal family, including the now King Charles III.

The original concept of Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo has not changed. It is a company of professional male dancers performing the full range of ballet and modern dance repertoire, including classical and original works in faithful renditions of the manners and conceits of those dance styles. The comedy is achieved by incorporating and exaggerating the foibles, accidents, and underlying incongruities of serious dance. The fact that muscular, athletic bodies dance all of the parts, delicately balancing on toes as swans, sylphs, water sprites, romantic princesses, and angstridden Victorian ladies, enhances the appreciation for the effort, timing, stamina, and precision required, delighting die-hard ballet fans and newcomers alike.

Looking to the future, the Trocks are making plans for new commissions, new debuts, and new audiences, while continuing the company’s original mission: to bring the pleasure of dance to the widest possible audience.

The company will, as they have for over 50 years, “keep on Trockin’.”

Le Lac Des Cygnes (Swan Lake, Act II)

MUSIC BY PYOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY

CHOREOGRAPHY AFTER LEV IVANOVICH IVANOV

COSTUMES BY MIKE GONZALES

DECOR BY CLIO YOUNG

LIGHTING BY KIP MARSH

Swept up into the magical realm of swans (and birds), this elegiac phantasmagoria of variations and ensembles in line and music is the signature work of Les Ballets Trockadero. The story of Odette, the beautiful princess turned into a swan by the evil sorcerer, and how she is nearly saved by the love of Prince Siegfried, was not so unusual a theme when Tchaikovsky first wrote his ballet in 1877 -- the metamorphosis of mortals to birds and visa versa occurs frequently in Russian folklore. The original Swan Lake at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow was treated unsuccessfully; a year after Tchaikovsky’s death in 1893, the St. Petersburg Maryinsky Ballet produced the version we know today. Perhaps the world’s best known ballet, its appeal seems to stem from the mysterious and pathetic qualities of the heroine juxtaposed with the canonized glamour of 19th century Russian ballet.

Benno: Jacques d’Aniels (friend and confidant to)

Prince Siegfried: Araf Legupski (who falls in love with)

(Queen of the) Colette Adae

Swans: Artists of the Trockadero (all of whom got this way because of)

Von Rothbart: Yuri Smirnov (an evil wizard who goes about turning girls into swans)

Go For Barocco

CHOREOGRAPHY

BY

PETER ANASTOS

Stylistic heir to Balanchine’s Middle-Blue-Verging-OnBlack-and-White Period, this ballet has become a primer in identifying stark coolness and choreosymphonic delineation in the new(neo) neo-new classic dance. It has been called a wristwatch for Balanchine clock-time.

Tatiana Youbetyabootskaya and Maya Thickenthighya With Holly Dey-Abroad, Heidi Kleine, Grunya Protazova, Moussia Shebarkarova

Metal Garden UK Premiere

CHOREOGRAPHY BY SEÁN CURRAN

MUSIC BY TIGGER BENFORD AND PETER JONES

COSTUMES BY JEFFREY STURDIVENT

LIGHTING BY KIP MARSH

“In short, this generation has conceived an intensity of movement so great that it has not to be seen against something else to be known, and therefore, this generation does not connect itself with anything, that is what makes this generation what it is and that is why it is American, and this is very important in connection with portraits of anything.”

- Gertrude Stein

Minnie van Driver

Gerd Törd

Marina Plezegetovstageskaya

Bruno Backpfeifengesicht

Vyacheslau Legupski

Nicholas Khachafallenjar

Commissioning support for the creation of Metal Garden is provided by Mary Lynn Bergman Rallis. This work originated at the Trocks’ Choreography Institute in 2024, which is made possible with leadership support from Denise Littlefield Sobel, along with additional support from The Howard Gilman Foundation, Shubert Foundation, The Max and Victoria Dreyfus Foundation, The Rallis Foundation, The Harkness Foundation for Dance, and public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

Photo: Tyler Whitman

The Dying Swan

Valpurgeyeva Noch (“Walpurgisnacht”)

MUSIC BY CHARLES GOUNOD

STAGED and with additional CHOREOGRAPHY by ELENA KUNIKOVA after LEONID LAVROVSKY COSTUMES BY NICOLE VALENCIA-GANN

LIGHTING BY JAX MESSENGER

DÉCOR BY KIP MARSH

This ballet is inspired by the Bolshoi Ballet’s Valpurgeyeva Noch, which Russians have long respected as a specimen of Soviet balletic camp.

Bacchante: Varvara Laptopova

Bacchus: Mikhail Mudkin

Pan: Timur Legupski

Fauns: Roland Deaulin, Polykarp Legupski, Vyacheslau

Legupski, Jacques d’Aniels Nymphs: Gerd Törd,

Tatiana Youbetyabootskaya

Maidens: Artists of the Trockadero

Paquita

MUSIC BY

LUDWIG MINKUS

CHOREOGRAPHY AFTER MARIUS PETIPA

STAGED BY ELENA

KUNIKOVA

COSTUMES AND DECOR BY MIKE GONZALES

LIGHTING BY KIP MARSH

Paquita is a superb example of the French style as it was exported to Saint Petersburg in the late 19th Century. Paquita was originally a ballet-pantomine in 2 acts, choreographed by Joseph Mazillier, to music by Ernest Deldevez. The story had a Spanish theme, with Carlotta Grisi (creator of Giselle) as a young woman who is kidnapped and saves a young and handsome officer from certain death. Premiering at the Paris Opera in 1846, the ballet was produced a year later in Russia by Marius Petipa. Petipa commissioned Ludwig Minkus, the composer of his two most recent successes (Don Quixote and La Bayadere) to write additional music in order to add a brilliant “divertissement” to Mazillier’s Paquita.

Petipa choreographed for this a Pas de Trois and a Grand Pas de Deux in his characteristic style. These soon became the bravura highlights of the evening-to the point that they are the only fragments of Paquita that have been preserved. The dancers display a range of choreographic fireworks, which exploit the virtuoso possibilities of academic classical dance, enriched by the unexpected combinations of steps.

Ballerina and Cavalier

Varvara Laptopova with Mikhail Mudkin

Variations:

Variation 1 Tatiana Youbetyabootskaya

Variation 2 Minnie van Driver

Variation 3 Moussia Shebarkarova

Variation 4 Colette Adae

Variation 5 Varvara Laptopova

Meet the Artists

Colette Adae

Holly Dey-Abroad

COLETTE ADAE was orphaned at the age of three when her mother, a ballerina of some dubious distinction, impaled herself on the first violinist’s bow after a series of rather uncontrolled “fouette voyage.” Colette was raised and educated with the “rats” of the Opera House but the trauma of her childhood never let her reach her full potential. However, under the kind and watchful eye of the Trockadero, she has begun to flower and we are sure you will enjoy watching her growth.

HOLLY DEY-ABROAD. Miss Dey-Abroad lacks the talent and intelligence that are required to be good at dancing and did not understand that this lack of talent and intelligence are often the same qualities needed to recognize that one is not good at dancing—and if one lacks such talent and intelligence, one remains ignorant that one is not good at dancing. Consequently she auditioned for the Trocks and was accepted.

Heidi Kleine

Varvara Laptopova

HEIDI KLEINE was born on a locomotive speeding through the Alps in her native Bavaria. She quickly realized the limitations of her native folk dancing and quaint handicrafts. After her arrival in America, she learned everything she now knows about ballet from a seminar entitled “Evil Fairies on the Periphery of the Classical Dance.”

VARVARA LAPTOPOVA is one of those rare dancers who, with one look at a ballet, not only knows all the steps but can also dance all the roles. As a former member of the Kiev Toe and Heel Club, she was awarded first-prize at the Pan-Siberian Czardash and Kazotski Festival for artistic mis-interpretation.

Marina Plezegetovstageskaya

Grunya Protazova

MARINA PLEZEGETOVSTAGESKAYA. Any ballet goer who saw Mme Plezegetovstageskaya dancing on a herring in her first American tour is not likely to forget her outstanding performance as the Vegan Sour Cream Fairy. One of the world’s great dialectical sophists, Honored Artist Plezegetovstageskaya came to the stage from the Bolshoi Academy of Dance Polemics where she excelled in heroic parts and tableaux vivifies. There she gained youthful fame as a practitioner of barefoot naturalism right up to the eyebrows. Following her graduation she was drafted by the Trockadero for a player to be named later.

GRUNYA PROTAZOVA is the missing link between the crustaceans of the old Russian school and the more modern amphibians now dancing. Before joining the Trockadero, Grunya was the featured ballerina at SeaWorld, where her famous autobiographical solo, Dance of the Lower Orders, brought several marine biologists to tears. Later, Grunya became an esteemed SeaWorld Ambassador, known throughout the world for her fight for equality in the lower depths, earning an “honourable mention” in the updated Ichthyologia Ohiensis publication of the Elasmobranch Society.

Moussia Shebarkarova

Olga Supphozova

MOUSSIA SHEBARKAROVA. A celebrated child prodigy back in the Brezhnev era, Moussia Shebarkarova astounded her parents at the age of two by taking a correspondence course in ballet. Sadly, due to the unreliable Russian postal system, she has only just graduated.

OLGA SUPPHOZOVA made her first public appearance in a police line-up under dubious circumstances. After a seven-year-to-life hiatus, she now returns to her adoring fans. When questioned about her forced sabbatical, Olga’s only comment was “I did it for Art’s sake.” Art, however, said nothing.

Maya Thickenthighya

Gerd Törd

MAYA THICKENTHIGHYA’s radioactive properties prevented her from appearing with the Trockadero until her recent release from a special sanitarium on the Black Sea. A brilliant virtuoso in the Moscow style, Madame Thickenthighya’s torque was applied to the running of Generator 14 near the Gorsky Dam during the period of her political disgrace. She is, this season, reinstated to her unique position in the ballet world.

GERD TÖRD, “The Prune Danish of Russian Ballet,” abandoned an enormously successful career as a film actress to become a Trockadero ballerina. Her faithful fans, however, need not despair as most of her great films have been made into ballets: the searing Back to Back, the tear-filled Thighs and Blisters, and the immortal seven-part Screams from a Carriage. Because of her theatrical flair, Gerd has chosen to explore the more dramatic aspects of ballet, causing one critic to rename her Giselle, “What’s my Line?”

Minnie Van Driver

Vera Vidludik

MINNIE VAN DRIVER. Always running to rehearsals, costume fittings and performances, Miss Driver has a strong sense of movement. She has performed worldwide and has a natural aptitude for touring. Famous for her beautiful port de bras, she gives credit to her many hours behind the wheel.

VERA VIDLUDIK. Despite possessing a walk-in wardrobe so large that it has its own post code, Mlle Vidludik remains a true ballerina of the people. Indeed, she is so loved in her native Moldova that in 1993 the grateful citizens of Chișinău awarded her the key to the city. That might well have remained the “golden moment” of this great ballerina’s career had they not subsequently changed the locks.

Tatiana Youbetyabootskaya

TATIANA YOUBETYABOOTSKAYA, created many original roles in St. Petersburg where she was the last of a long line of Italian etoiles to appear at the Maryinsky Theater. It was her dazzling triumph in the role of “Electricity” in the extravagant “Excelsior” in her native Milan which brought her fame. However, no less electrifying was the line up of perfectly trained elephants, performing like the present day Rockettes. Unfortunately, Mlle Youbetyabootskaya’s jealous scenes over the publicity given to these elephants and their ensuing popularity with the public, caused numerous problems. She subsequently refused to appear again in this role.

Blagovesta Zlotmachinskaya

BLAGOVESTA ZLOTMACHINSKAYA. Ever since her auspicious debut as the Left Nostril in the ballet extracted from The Nose by Gogol, Blagovesta has shown a unique appreciation of her homeland’s literary heritage. Back home, she is best known as the star of the hit TV show Challenge Anna Karenina, in which the eponymous heroine of Tolstoy’s classic novel seeks to expose the fin de siecle malaise at the heart of preRevolutionary Russia with the aid of a helicopter and walkie-talkie.

Bruno Backpfeifengesicht

Jacques d’aniels

BRUNO BACKPFEIFENGESICHT soared into prominence as the first East German defector whose leavetaking was accomplished at the virtual insistence of the defectees (although in subsequent days Herr Backpfeifengesicht was accused of abandoning his joyous comrades for “a mountain of beer and an ocean of dollars”). His meteoric rise to stardom caused him to be named Official Bicentennial Porteur by a committee of New York balletomanes who singled out his winning feet and losing smile.

JACQUES d’ANIELS was originally trained as an astronaut before entering the world of ballet. Strong but flexible, good natured but dedicated, sensible but not given to unbelievable flights of fantastic behavior, Mr. d’Aniels is an expert on recovering from ballet injuries (including the dread “Pavlova’s clavicle”).

Roland Deaulin

Boris Dumbkopf

ROLAND DEAULIN. Having invented the concept of the “bad hair year” or “annus hairibilis”, French born Roland now devotes his spare time to selling his new line of Michael Flatley Wigs on the QVC shopping channel.

BORIS DUMBKOPF has been with the greatest ballerinas of our time; he has even danced with some of them. One of the first defective Eastern Bloc male stars, he left the motherland for purely capitalistic reasons. Amazingly, between his appearances on television and Broadway and in movies, commercials, magazines, special events, and women’s nylons, he occasionally still has time to dance.

Nicholas Khachafallenjar

NICHOLAS KHACHAFALLENJAR the demi-semi-hemicharacter dancer from innermost Outer Tashkent, was awarded the Order of Stalin for his partnering techniques. Although no ballerina has ever lived to describe the thrill of his touch, he continues to astound the public (and elude the police) with his brute strength. He is fondly known in the Trockadero as “Nick the Crusher.”

The Legupski Brothers

THE LEGUPSKI BROTHERS , Araf, Polykarp, Timur, Marat and Vyacheslau are not really brothers, nor are their names really Araf, Polykarp, Timur, Marat or Vyacheslau nor are they real Russians, nor can they tell the difference between a pirouette and a jete... but...well...they do move about rather nicely ...and...they fit into the costumes.

Mikhail Mudkin

Yuri Smirnov

MIKHAIL MUDKIN , the famed Russian danseur for whom the word “Bolshoi” was coined, comes to American from his triumphs as understudy to a famous impresario in the role of The Bear in Petrushka.

YURI SMIRNOV. At the age of sixteen, Yuri ran away from home and joined the Kirov Opera because he thought Borodin was a prescription barbiturate. Luckily for the Trockadero, he soon discovered that he didn’t know his arias from his elbow, and decided to become a ballet star instead.

Pavel Törd

William Vanilla

PAVEL TÖRD . “The Prune Danish of Russian Ballet”, abandoned an enormously successful career as a film actor to become a Trockadero premier danseur. His faithful fans, however, need not despair as most of his great films have been made into ballets: the searing Back to Back, the tear-filled Thighs and Blisters, and the immortal seven-part Screams from a Carriage. Because of his theatrical flair, Pavel has chosen to explore the more dramatic aspects of ballet, causing one critic to rename his Siegfried, “What’s my Line?”

WILLIAM VANILLA . Despite the fact that he is American, he is very popular within the company. He is extremely personable, the ballerinas very much enjoy dancing with him, the management finds him agreeable, his costumes are never soiled, his fans admire his directness, he photographs well, he keeps regular hours, brushes his teeth after every meal, and he has never said a bad word about anybody. He will never really understand Russian ballet.

The Company

Dancers

Moussia Shebarkarova and Vyacheslau Legupski

Heidi Kleine and Polykarp Legupski

Blagovesta Zlotmachinskaya and Mikhail Mudkin

Olga Supphozova and Yuri Smirnov

Vera Vidludik and Nicholas Khachafallenjar

Gerd Törd and Pavel Törd

Tatiana Youbetyabootskaya and Araf Legupski

Maya Thickenthighya and Roland Deaulin

Minnie van Driver and William Vanilla

Marina Plezegetovstageskaya and Jacques d’Aniels

Holly Dey-Abroad and Bruno Backpfeifengesicht

Grunya Protazova and Marat Legupski

Colette Adae and Timur Legupski

Varvara Laptopova and Boris Dumbkopf

Company Staff

Artistic Director

Executive Director

Associate Director

Associate Artistic Director

Production Manager

Lighting Supervisor

Wardrobe Supervisor

Education Manager

Digital Engagement Manager

Company Advancement Associate

Development Consultant

Costume Designers

Stylistic Guru

Orthopedic Consultant

Photographers

Tory Dobrin

Liz Harler

Isabel Martinez Rivera

Raffaele Morra

Shelby Sonnenberg

Isaac Castillo

Charles van Roden

Roy Fialkow

Anne Posluszny

MaryBeth Rodgers

LG Capital for Culture

Ken Busbin, Jeffrey Sturdivant

Marius Petipa

Dr. David S. Weiss

Christopher Gagliardi, Zoran Jelenic

www.facebook.com/thetrocks

www.instagram.com/lesballetstrockadero www.youtube.com/@lesballetstrockadero

www.tiktok.com/@thetrocks

x.com/the_trocks

trockadero.org

Vincent Brewer

Birthplace: Great Barrington, MA.

Training: Indiana University, Cantarella School of Ballet, Berkshire Pulse.

Joined Trockadero: September, 2024.

Previous companies: Festival Ballet Providence, Newport Contemporary Ballet, Albany Berkshire Ballet.

Harrison Broadbent

Birthplace: Concord, NH.

Training: Boston Ballet School, The School of American Ballet.

Joined Trockadero: October 2025.

Other Companies: Dayton Ballet, Ballet Austin 2.

Raydel Caceres

Robert Carter

Birthplace: Pinar del Río, Cuba.

Training: Centro pro danza-Laura Alonso.

Joined Trockadero: July 2023.

Previous companies: California Ballet, Twins City Ballet of MN, Ballet Theater of Maryland, Cuban Classical Ballet of Miami. Silver medal at Festival de Danca, Joinville, Brazil.

Birthplace: Charleston, SC.

Training: Robert Ivey Ballet School, Joffrey Ballet School.

Joined Trockadero: November 1995.

Previous companies: Florence Civic Ballet, Dance Theater of Harlem Ensemble, Bay Ballet Theater.

A.J. David

Birthplace: Fairfax, VA.

Training: Metropolitan School of the Arts, George Mason University.

Joined Trockadero: October 2025.

Matias Dominguez Escrig

Birthplace: Santiago, Chile.

Training: José Espadero Professional Dance Conservatory, Sofia Sancho Dance School, Madrid Dance Center.

Joined Trockadero: October 2023.

Previous company: International Ballet Festival.

Andrea Fabbri

Peter Gwiazda

Birthplace: Lugo, Italy.

Training: Il Balleto, The HARID Conservatory.

Joined Trockadero: October 2023.

Previous companies: Los Angeles Ballet, Estonian National Ballet.

Birthplace: Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

Training: Nutmeg Ballet Conservatory, Seiskaya Ballet Academy, Ballet Academy East.

Joined Trockadero: June 2025.

Liam Vincent Hutt

Antonio Lopez

Birthplace: Fort Myers, FL.

Training: UNC School of the Arts.

Joined Trockadero: February 2025.

Previous company: Oklahoma City Ballet Studio Company.

Birthplace: Albuquerque, NM.

Training: Ballet Repertory Theater of NM, Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet.

Joined Trockadero: September 2025.

Previous companies: New Mexico Ballet Company, St. Paul Ballet, Twin Cities Ballet of MN, Eugene Ballet.

Felix Molinero Del Paso

Birthplace: Granada, Spain.

Training: Hochschule fur Darstellende kunst Frankfurt am Main.

Joined Trockadero: August 2019.

Salvador Sasot Sellart

Birthplace: Lleida, Spain.

Training: Real Conservatorio Profesional de Danza de Madrid Mariemma, Escuela de Ballet Camina Ocaña and Pablo Savoye.

Joined Trockadero: August 2019.

Previous company: Severočeske Divadlo Opera a Balet.

Jake Speakman

Takaomi Yoshino

Birthplace: Philadelphia PA.

Training: Marymount Manhattan College.

Joined Trockadero: November 2021.

Previous companies: New York Dance Project, New York Theater Ballet.

Birthplace: Osaka, Japan.

Training: Vaganova Ballet Academy, Ellison Ballet.

Joined Trockadero: August 2018.

Previous company: Atlantic City Ballet.

Rapturously and rupturously funny

By Neil Norman

MEN dancing like women. It’s easy, right?

Tights, wigs, tutus, a bit of lippy, false eyelashes and off they prance.

Drag artistes pout and pose and wave their arms in the air like they just don’t care. Nothing to it.

Think again.

The members of Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo aren’t just blokes prancing around in female attire. They are ballerinas as well as danseurs.

And that’s the pointe.

Photo: Chris Gagliardi

Let us cast our minds back to Manhattan in 1974. A loft. A group of men - some drag artistes, some dancers - had the bright idea to put the two artistic disciplines together. Drag Ballet? Wouldn’t that be fun?

Formerly members of the Trockadero Gloxinia Ballet Company, they initially produced small, late-night shows in Off Off Broadway venues. The troupe’s first show was on September 9, 1974 in a second-storey loft on 14th Street in the Meatpacking District. Reviewed favourably by distinguished New Yorker magazine dance critic Arlene Croce, the company was outed to a wider audience.

By mid-1975, the Trocks - as they were affectionately dubbed - qualified for the National Endowment for the Arts Touring Program and hired a full-time teacher and ballet mistress, formally establishing them as a touring dance company.

According to their mission statement, Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo is a company of professional male dancers performing the full range of ballet and modern dance repertoire, including classical and original works in faithful renditions of the manners and conceits of those dance styles. The comedy is achieved by incorporating and exaggerating the foibles, accidents, and underlying incongruities of serious dance.

It was open to all-comers. The only criteria were that you had to be able to dance like a ballerina and you had to be a man.

50-plus years on, the criteria remain essentially the same.

And there’s more. Most members of The Trocks have two on-stage characters - one of each gender. Having danced through the pirouettes, jetés and demi-pliés as a Princess Aurora with a hangover, the same dancer may return later as the Nutcracker Prince on a bender. This can be especially funny when a diminutive Prince has to hoist a six-foot Princess into the air.

A Trocks’ show is a cocktail of parody and pastiche of Russian Imperial ballet. The intro sets the scene and the mood. A thick Russian voice comes over the tannoy to notify the audience of changes of cast due to accident, illness or emergency. Listen carefully for who hasn’t made the show this evening.

The humour is generated largely through the dancers’ stage personalities, character idiosyncrasies and inflated egos. Internecine jealousies are played out in performance. The celebrated Dance of the Cygnets from Swan Lake is rapturously and rupturously funny, with three dancers performing in perfect synchronisation complete with nodding heads while the fourth inattentive swanlet at the end keeps missing cues and is distracted by the audience or someone in the wings.

In ensemble sequences they compete for attention, pushing and pulling and colliding with each other as they attempt to hog the spotlight. And so it goes, each sequence funny until it isn’t. Having established that they are remarkable physical clowns they will suddenly perform a piece that is not amusing in the least; a serious bout of dancing that stops you in your tracks and turns your head around. It is this that elevates The Trocks from a comedy troupe to a higher level, more artists than artistes; highly-skilled professionals with a subversive sense of humour.

It is blindingly evident that The Trocks love classical ballet. They wouldn’t be able to create such perfect parodies if they didn’t. As most classical romantic ballets are not over-burdened with comedy, The Trocks are performing a service by inserting giggles and guffaws into the more po-faced elements of the classical repertoire. Whether you are a balletomane or a neophyte, there is something to entertain everyone. It has been pointed out that they can act as a gateway to ballet for children and the uninitiated.

Founded in New York in 1974 by ballet enthusiasts

Peter Anastos, Anthony Bassae, and Natch Taylor, Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo was created to present a playful, entertaining view of traditional, classical ballet in parody form and with men performing all of the roles – and in the case of roles usually danced by women: en travesti and en pointe.

In spite of their origins and niche appeal - suitable primarily for the gay community and adventurous

adults at the time - they have expanded their demographic in age, gender and sexual orientation and risen to international popularity. The adjustments have not necessarily been made by the company - whose raison d’etre remains solid - but by the audiences themselves. Society has changed to accommodate The Trocks rather than the other way around. Now, everyone from eight to 80 can enjoy their singular brand of entertainment. They are truly inclusive.

And few countries have embraced them more warmly than Britain. The Trocks won our hearts, including that of King Charles III, formerly known as Prince, who saw them at the Royal Variety Performance in 2008. This comes as no surprise as cross-gendering in the theatre has been embedded in British culture for centuries.

Women were not permitted to act on-stage in Britain until 1660 when Margaret Hughes stepped onto the stage as Desdemona in Othello. Before that momentous event, all of Shakespeare’s female characters had been played by men. From Dan Leno to Sir Ian McKellen, pantomime dames are always played by men in drag. Even now, male actors regularly challenge female actors as well as each other with handbags at dawn to play Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest. Similarly, drag artistes such as Danny LaRue, Barry Humphries’ Dame Edna, Divine and the lissome ‘ladies’ of Soho’s celebrated Madame Jojos have each gained a place in the hearts of Brits. The stage version of Harvey Fierstein’s Kinky Boots is now a fixture in London’s West End as well as a touring show.

Consequently, The Trocks are part of a tradition that is not just continuing but evolving with each decade. If the original concept of Les Ballets Trockadero de

Monte Carlo has not changed it has subtly adapted to the socio-cultural conditions of the age. What was once outrageous is now family-friendly.  It is a company of professional male dancers performing the full range of ballet and modern dance repertoire, including classical and original works in faithful renditions of the manners and conceits of those dance styles.

It takes real skill and a deep love of the dance form to parody it successfully and this is where The Trocks score over rivals and pretenders to the throne. Over the decades, their reputation in the dance community has grown to the point where they are highly respected. While the notion that they were once a repository for dancers who failed to gain a place in a prestigious ‘straight’ company has never been true, I can quite imagine that many dancers in serious companies envy The Trocks’ freedom of expression as well as their finely honed skills. The respect and reputation they have earned in the dance community

is such that I feel certain that professional dancers actively pursue auditions with The Trocks in order to further their careers and expand their technical skills. Training to dance is one thing; training to dance as both danseur and ballerina is another. But training to dance as both danseur and ballerina AND be funny is several steps beyond the norm. In some respects, members of The Trocks have to train three times harder than most dancers.

And they are open to all comers. You don’t have to be slim and lithe to consider a position. Men of all shapes and sizes, colours and sexual orientation can audition.

The combination of respect for the technical demands of ballet and irreverence for the more po-faced conventions that accompany it is what makes them unique. But the dance comes first, the gags come later. There are dancers here so finely-tuned they could smuggle themselves into the ensemble onstage at the Royal Ballet without being noticed.

So keep your eyes open. The next time you see one of the big beasts of classical ballet pay particular attention to the ensemble. Among the Swans of Swan Lake and The Wilis of Giselle it is entirely possible that you may light upon a graduate of The School of Trock.

Neil Norman

Neil Norman started out as a rock and film critic for the NME, before becoming the film critic for The Face magazine and has written for every newspaper from the Guardian to The Sunday Times. He was film critic for The Evening Standard and currently divides his time between writing about theatre and dance and contributing to film programmes on Sky Arts. He has written a play about Montgomery Clift, a critical biography of Robbie Coltrane, the book of Nicolas Roeg’s film Insignificance, and a novel, Cat City.

When and Where

Bord Gáis Energy Theatre Dublin

THU 30 APR - FRI 1 MAY 2026

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Sadler’s Wells London

TUE 5 - WED 6 MAY 2026

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Wales Millennium Centre Cardiff

TUE 12 - WED 13 MAY 2026

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Wolverhampton Grand Theatre

FRI 15 - SAT 16 MAY 2026

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Mayflower Theatre Southampton

TUE 19 - WED 20 MAY 2026

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Theatre Royal Newcastle

TUE 26 - WED 27 MAY 2026

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Alhambra Theatre Bradford

FRI 29 - SAT 30 MAY 2026

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Milton Keynes Theatre

TUE 2 - WED 3 JUN 2026

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Theatre Royal Norwich

FRI 5 - SAT 6 JUN 2026

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Marlowe Theatre Canterbury

TUE 9 - WED 10 JUN 2026

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Blackpool Grand Theatre

FRI 12 JUN 2026

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Festival Theatre Edinburgh

TUE 16 - WED 17 JUN 2026

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His Majesty’s Theatre Aberdeen

FRI 19 - SAT 20 JUN 2026

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Buxton Opera House

TUE 23 - WED 24 JUN 2026

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Learning, Engagement & Access

Dance Consortium’s engagement programmes run parallel to tours, offering audiences an opportunity to deepen their understanding and passion for dance and circus. The UK tour of Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo not only delivers captivating performances but also presents enriching learning and engagement activities tailored for schools, community groups and dance enthusiasts..

Post-Show Q&As: Illuminating post-show Q&A sessions are hosted on the tour’s opening night in each city. Featuring Artistic Director Tory Dobrin, or Associate Artistic Director, Raffaele Morra they share information about the history of the Trocks and stories about the troupe’s international success, as well as answer questions from the audience.

Workshops: A unique opportunity to learn from internationally renowned artists both on stage and backstage. Taught by the Associate Artistic Director or a

Senior Company Member, participants get the chance to learn repertoire and get an insight into the Trocks’ satirical take on ballet classics in movement workshops. Makeup seminars and round table discussions offer close connection to the company and its rich history offer insight into how the Trocks transform from street look to ballerina!

Open Rehearsals: Observe the company as they prepare for the evening performance providing a unique opportunity into the process as the company gets ready for the show. Attendees are invited to watch a portion of company class and subsequent rehearsal onstage. The class and rehearsal will be in rehearsal clothes and working lights, offering an opportunity to see the Trocks’ technique and performance stand on its own. There will be a brief introduction after the class by the Artistic Director or Associate Artistic Director, followed by an informal chat with participants.

Audio Described Performances:

As part of Dance Consortium’s work towards offering increased access to tours, Audio Described performances are offered at the majority of venues throughout the Trocks tour. Providing live verbal commentary with information on the visual elements of a production, a touch tour and audio description will be delivered in partnership with Talking Theatre. Dates for Audio Described performances available here. Touch Tour 6 – 6.30pm Audio Description 7.30pm (during show)

Insight Notes: This free resource provides insights into the Trocks. Teachers, students and community groups can access complimentary introductory notes containing links to further reading and video clips. Suitable for formal and informal learning, these materials support curriculum study and enrich understanding, appreciation and creative responses to the show.

Talent

Development:

Dance Consortium has year-round commitment to supporting creative careers and talent development. Recent initiatives include ongoing project, Future Leaders, that establishes connections between our 24 member theatres and the next generation of off-stage theatre workforce. Work placements provide hands-on experiences for students from the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (LIPA) during many Dance Consortium tours, offering invaluable real-world experience.

Visit danceconsortium.com for more information.

Dance Consortium Past Tours

Breakin’

(2007. Supported 2009, 2010, 2012 & 2014)

Learn more about these Dance Consortium tours at danceconsortium.com

Dance Consortium Credits

Co Chairs: Stephen Crocker & Marianne Locatori

Directors: Anand Bhatt, Helen Costello, Stephen Crocker, Andrew Hurst, Marianne Locatori, Chris Stafford, Iona Waite & Suzanne Walker

Chief Executive: Joe Bates

Senior Producer: Claire Morton

Audiences & Engagement Manager: Megan Saunders

Social Media Management: Matt Fishel

Administrative Intern: Abena Adu-Boateng

Marketing: Mark Dooley and Shereden Mathews at Dressing Room 5, Helen Snell & Emma Russell at Helen Snell Ltd

Press: Sue Lancashire & Martha Oakes at Martha Oakes PR

Accountants: Rebecca Gaskin & Janice Jane Webster at Streets | Rowlands Webster

Auditors: Vanessa Graham at Topaz Solutions Limited

Website: HdK Associates

Programme Design & Print: Consider This Agency

Audio Description: Caroline Burn, Talking Theatre

Tour Manager: Emily de Mariveles

Production Management: Phil Webb

Production Electricians: Alex Frost, John Lawrence

Lighting Support: White Light

Trucking Arrangements: Fly by Nite

Travel Arrangements: The Production Touring team at Specialised Travel

Insurance: Gordon & Co Insurance Brokers

We are hugely grateful for the generous donations received via Dance Consortium’s Support Circles. For more information about how to join our new scheme, please visit danceconsortium.com/support-us

Dance Consortium would like to acknowledge and thank the following for their support

Read about all our venues at danceconsortium.com Dance Consortium Limited is registered in England no 6179223. Charity Registration no. 1130289. The details in this programme are correct at the time of print and are subject to change.

Greener Touring

Dance Consortium is committed to reducing the impact of its activities on the environment through its environmental action plan. Whilst acknowledging that international touring creates an unavoidable carbon footprint, we actively seek ways to improve and mitigate against this. We endeavour to promote best practice across our membership and raise awareness of the effects of climate change amongst our members, the companies we tour, our audiences and young people participating in our Learning and Engagement programme.

We continue to develop and promote new and innovative initiatives across the member venues. Here’s a snapshot of some of the achievements that we are proud of:

• We supply all visiting companies with reusable Ocean Bottles for each person in their team and our venues provide water stations next to the stage. Dancers drink lots of water, so this reduces plastic waste from single-use bottles of mineral water. To date, our partnership with Ocean Bottles has funded collection of 390,000 ocean-bound plastic bottles, representing 4434kg of plastic waste!

• Our touring technical team uses Velcro fasteners in place of PVC electrical tape for cabling work wherever possible, reducing the sacks of tape waste usually produced at the end of each run of performances.

• Brighton Dome is on a mission to reduce single-use plastics across the whole organisation and have teamed up with reusable cup experts Green Goblet to serve up audience drinks in an earthfriendly way.

• Solar panels at the Marlowe Theatre Canterbury have powered the equivalent of 213 shows to date. In partnership with Canterbury City Council, they have installed new all-LED lighting in the auditorium including LED follow-spots, resulting in last year’s panto using 70% less energy than before – Oh yes it did!

• Eden Court, Inverness achieved a 10% reduction in gas use compared to 2019 and transition to Automated Meter Readings. Significant funding from the Community Regeneration Fund and Patrons has enabled installation of Rockwool insulation, significantly enhancing energy efficiency.

• South Bank Centre, London installed a manual segregation unit, allowing waste to be split into 15 different recycling streams and increasing recycling rates.

• The Mayflower, Southampton, has made energy savings through historic refurbishment of 97 year old chandeliers.

• Theatre Royal Newcastle has replaced lighting, upgraded recycling processes, installed double glazing and air source heat pumps in the building.

• Norwich Theatre Royal installed a 10.6m x 2.6m Living Wall on the side of the fly tower.

• Each of our member venues has appointed a green champion and Dance Consortium facilitates a nationwide e-group to share ideas and resources.

• Two of our Trustees are part of Arts Council England’s Board Environmental Champions Programme, embedding environmental responsibility at governance level, supporting members to step up their sustainability plans and inspire peers and audiences at a time when it is most needed.

As well as the direct actions we’re taking to mitigate the climate crisis, we also see our role as supporting audiences understand what they do to help. A recent report titled Act Green by Indigo, an award-winning organisation that researches audience behaviours and trends, showed that 86% of cultural audiences are worried about the climate crisis and 72% think cultural organisations have a responsibility to influence society about the climate emergency.

Our biennial Greener Touring Symposium, most recently held at Brighton Dome in November 2025, brings together representatives from across the largescale theatre sector to explore and consider what theatres and audiences can do to support climate action.

Here are just a few ideas that you could consider:

• Travel: Can you use public transport to travel to the theatre? If not, then could you travel with friends and family to reduce the impact of private travel? Try using You Smart Thing, a new tool which can help you compare travel options and the amount of CO2e for each option: https://yousmartthing.com/

• Reduce waste: Think about the flyers and brochures you collect and throw away. Could you take a photo of the information instead? Change your subscription to receive venue news via its e-newsletter rather than through the post? Can you access the production programme online rather than buying a paper copy?

• Reuse cups and glasses: Act Green suggested that 88% of audiences would reduce their use of disposable packaging and single use plastic at venues. Many of our member theatres now have reusable cups, so be sure to take them back for a refill at the interval rather than requesting a fresh cup – we reuse glasses and cups at home so why not when we’re out and about too?!

• Recycle: Look out for recycling points around the theatres. If you can’t see them, ask a member of staff to direct you.

• Turn your lights off at home: whilst enjoying a shared experience in the theatre, you can collectively offset the energy being used on stage by making sure lights and appliances are turned off whilst you’re out of the house.

Where we are

Dance Consortium is a group of 24 large theatres located across the UK and Ireland.

Dance Consortium was formed in 2000 with the aim of enriching the high-quality dance offer in the UK by presenting regular tours from international companies. It has since grown into a widespread consortium of venues with a core strategic aim to develop audiences for dance across the UK and Ireland, engage new attenders in innovative ways, and promote the art form as a source of accessible enjoyment and entertainment.

Since its formation Dance Consortium has presented 57 tours by 31 different companies whose performances and education activities have been experienced by hundreds of thousands of people across all parts of the UK and in Ireland.

His Majesty’s Theatre ABERDEEN

Tickets: 01224 641122 www.aberdeenperformingarts.com/ his-majestys-theatre

Grand Opera House BELFAST

Tickets: 028 9024 1919 www.goh.co.uk

BIRMINGHAM Hippodrome

Tickets: 0844 338 5000

Calls cost 4.5p per min plus access charge www.birminghamhippodrome.com

BLACKPOOL Grand Theatre

Tickets 01253 290190 www.blackpoolgrand.co.uk

Alhambra Theatre BRADFORD

Tickets: 01274 432000 www.bradford-theatres.co.uk

BRIGHTON Dome

Tickets: 01273 709709 www.brightondome.org

BUXTON Opera House

Tickets: 01298 72190 buxtonoperahouse.org.uk

The Marlowe Theatre CANTERBURY

Tickets: 01227 787787 www.marlowetheatre.com

Wales Millennium Centre CARDIFF

Tickets: 029 2063 6464

Mac croeso I chi cysylitu â ni yn Gymraeg www.wmc.org.uk

The Bord Gáis Energy Theatre

DUBLIN

Tickets: +353 (1) 677 7999 www.bordgaisenergytheatre.ie

Festival Theatre EDINBURGH

Tickets: 0131 529 6000 www.capitaltheatres.com

Wycombe Swan Theatre

HIGH WYCOMBE

Tickets: 0343 310 0060 www.trafalgartickets.com/wycombe-swantheatre

HULL New Theatre

Tickets: 01482 300306 www.hulltheatres.co.uk

Eden Court Theatre INVERNESS

Tickets: 01463 234 234 www.eden-court.co.uk

Sadler’s Wells and Peacock Theatre LONDON

Tickets: 020 7863 8000 www.sadlerswells.com

MILTON KEYNES Theatre

Tickets: 0844 871 7615 www.atgtickets.com/venues/miltonkeynestheatre

Theatre Royal NEWCASTLE Tickets: 0191 232 7010 www.theatreroyal.co.uk

Theatre Royal NORWICH Tickets: 01603 630 000 www.norwichtheatre.org

NOTTINGHAM Theatre Royal and Concert Hall Tickets: 0115 989 5555 www.trch.co.uk

Theatre Royal PLYMOUTH Tickets: 01752 267222 www.theatreroyal.com

The Lowry SALFORD Tickets: 0343 208 6000 www.thelowry.com

Southbank Centre LONDON Tickets: 020 3879 9555 www.southbankcentre.co.uk

Mayflower Theatre SOUTHAMPTON Tickets: 02380 711811 www.mayflower.org.uk

WOLVERHAMPTON Grand Theatre

Tickets: 01902 42 92 12 www.grandtheatre.co.uk

UK & IRELAND TOUR 2027

1 - 2 Feb

DUBLIN Bord Gáis Energy Theatre

5 - 6 Feb

BIRMINGHAM Hippodrome

9 - 10 Feb

INVERNESS Eden Court Theatre

12 - 13 Feb

EDINBURGH King’s Theatre

16 - 17 Feb

ABERDEEN His Majesty’s Theatre

19 - 20 Feb

SALFORD Lowry

25 - 27 Feb

LONDON Sadler’s Wells

SÃO PAULO DANCE COMPANY

‘THE BEST THING TO COME FROM BRAZIL SINCE PELE. POSTIVELY BREATHTAKING’

2 - 3 Mar

NEWCASTLE Theatre Royal

9 - 10 Mar

NORWICH Theatre Royal

16 - 17 Mar

BRADFORD Alhambra Theatre

19 - 20 Mar

CANTERBURY Marlowe Theatre

23 - 24 Mar

SOUTHAMPTON Mayflower Theatre

26 - 27 Mar

PLYMOUTH Theatre Royal Plymouth

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