Columbus Native Returns to Perform with LES BALLETS TROCKADERO DE MONTE CARLO

The world's foremost all-male comic ballet company, Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo was founded in 1974 by a group of ballet enthusiasts for the purpose of presenting a playful, entertaining view of traditional, classical ballet in parody form and "en travesti" (males performing female roles). The Trocks, as they are affectionately known, blend their comic approach with a loving knowledge of dance, proving once and for all that men can, indeed, dance "en pointe" without falling flat on their faces. Columbus native Duane Gosa, a member of the company since 2003, will be performing as Helen Highwaters as well as the Legupski Brothers.

CAPA presents Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo at the Ohio Theatre (39 E. State St.) on Tuesday, February 28, at 7:30 pm. Tickets are $20-$40 at the CAPA Ticket Center (39 E. State St.), all Ticketmaster outlets, and www.ticketmaster.com. To purchase tickets by phone, please call (614) 469-0939 or (800) 745-3000.

Founded in 1974 by a group of ballet enthusiasts for the purpose of presenting a playful, entertaining view of traditional, classical ballet in parody form and en travesti, Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo first performed in the late-late shows of Off-Off Broadway lofts. The Trocks, as the dancers are affectionately known, quickly garnered a major critical essay by Arlene Croce in The New Yorker which, combined with reviews in The New York Times and The Village Voice, established the company as an artistic and popular success.

By mid-1975, the Trocks' were being noted beyond New York. Articles and notices in publications such as Variety, Oui, The London Daily Telegraph, as well as a Richard Avedon photo essay in Vogue, made the company nationally and internationally known.

The 1975-76 season was a year of growth and full professionalization. The company added management, qualified for the National Endowment for the Arts Touring Program, hired a full-time teacher and ballet mistress to oversee daily classes and rehearsals, and made its first extended tours of the US 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.

Since those beginnings, the Trocks have established themselves as a major dance phenomenon throughout the world. The company has participated in dance festivals in Turkey, Holland, San Luis Potosi, Madrid, Montreal, New York, Paris, Spoleto, Turin, and Vienna. There have been television appearances as varied as a Shirley MacLaine special, "The Dick Cavett Show," "What's My Line?," "Real People," "On-Stage America," visiting with Kermit and Miss Piggy on "Muppet Babies," and a BBC Omnibus special on the world of ballet hosted by Jennifer Saunders. The Trocks also had their own solo specials on national networks in Japan and Germany, as well as a French television special with Julia Migenes. A documentary was filmed and aired internationally by the acclaimed British arts program, "The South Bank Show," and the Company was featured in "The Egg," the PBS program about arts in America. Several performances were taped by a consortium of Dutch, French, and Japanese TV networks at the Maison de la Danse in Lyon, France, for worldwide broadcast and DVD distribution.

The Trocks' numerous tours have been both popular and critical successes. The company's annual schedules have included six tours to Australia and New Zealand, 25 to Japan (where annual visits have created a nationwide cult following and fan club), 10 to South America, three to South Africa, and 55 tours of Europe. In the US, the company has become a regular part of the college and university circuit in addition to frequent presentations in all 50 states. The company has appeared in more than 30 countries and 500 cities worldwide since its founding.

The company continues to appear in benefits for international AIDS organizations such as DRA (Dancers Responding to AIDS) and Classical Action in New York City; the Life Ball in Vienna, Austria; Dancers for Life in Toronto, Canada; and London's Stonewall Gala. In addition, the Trocks have given or participated in special benefit performances for the Connecticut Ballet Theater, Ballet Hawaii, Rochester City Ballet, Sadler's Wells Theater (London), and the Gay and Lesbian Community Center and Young Audiences/Arts for Learning Organization and the Ali Forney House (NYC) benefiting gay youths in need.

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 the 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 men dance all the parts-heavy bodies delicately balancing on toes as swans, sylphs, water sprites, romantic princesses, or angst-ridden Victorian ladies-enhances, rather than mocks, the spirit of dance as an art form, delighting and amusing the most knowledgeable, as well as novices, in the audiences.

www.Trockadero.org

Photo credit: Zoran Jelenic

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