The gender-bending “mallerinas” of Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo are coming back to Philadelphia for the holidays with their playful interpretation of classical ballet Dec. 13-15 at the Annenberg Center’s Zellerbach Theatre.
The critically acclaimed all-male company will perform the Philadelphia premieres of “Go for Barocco,” as well as the long-awaited return of “Le Lac Des Cygnes (Swan Lake, Act II).”
Les Ballets dancer Davide Marongiu said he was attracted to the company because there are too few opportunities for male dancers to have the spotlight in traditional ballet companies.
“Boys in ballet, unless you become a star right away, you are bound to support the girl and be in the background all the time,” he said. “I just got a little tired of that. There’s got to be something more to this. I love the acting part of ballet, not just the simple execution. I heard that Les Ballets Trockadero was in Paris, and thought to myself that I’d give it a shot. Then this all happened.”
The company was founded, and subsequently started touring internationally, 38 years ago.
Marongiu said the group attracts audiences of both traditional and nontraditional ballet fans.
“We have a really good mix because our show is not just for people who are into ballet. We have a reputation of being very entertaining for people who already know us, and those who don’t know us find themselves involved in a performance that is not conventional. There’s the parody and there’s the comedy. It turns out that an audience that is not educated about ballet finds ways to relate to the dancers and the performances because it does not take a lot for you to know ‘Swan Lake’ and get the parody of the jokes we put on stage. Our main thing is Russian classical styles from the 19th century. But over the years, we’ve done more modern pieces. We are definitely working on both a lot.”
Marongiu added that even though the company focuses on comedic parodies, the members are very serious about the art form and how they portray it to audiences.
“The comedy is universal because we try to never cross the line between parody and playing a drag show,” he said. “It is not a drag show. Of course we are dressed as girls but that’s about it. Our show is a parody and to do parody you have to know very well what you’re making fun of and to be able to celebrate it by making a joke about it. We don’t want to cross the line into slapstick. We try to be very tasteful, which is very important in ballet. We keep it simple and direct. Everything we do in terms of comedy comes out naturally during the rehearsal process. These are things that can happen to anybody in any company in the world. A ballerina slips and falls. That’s the most common thing. The more elaborate jokes, those depend on the personality of the dancers that perform them. We do have a set of rules when it comes to comedy, but it is very free and fresh.”
Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo performs Dec. 13-15 at Zellerbach Theatre, 3680 Walnut St. For more information or tickets, visit www.trockadero.org or call 215-898-3900.