I had waited almost a decade to see Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo perform again – and it was worth the patience.

Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo are a touring ballet company, with beautiful ballerinas dancing iconic roles.
The hook? They’re all male ballerinas. The line? It’s comedic ballet in drag. The sinker? They are technically brilliant dancers.

This is a show that sweeps you off your feet with a painted smile and keeps you floating on air before tripping over the swan behind you.

The company grew out of the Stone-Wall riots, and they now perform worldwide, and everything about ‘The Trocks’ is precisely crafted to make you smile. From marketing to tech to performance – everything works together: even the dancer’s names are made up, with each adopting a parody persona. There’s “Maya Thickenthighya” and “Tatiana Youbetyabootskaya” for example.

‘Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo’ describes itself as “the world’s foremost gender-skewering comic ballet company, parodying the conventions of romantic and classical ballet.” and notes that “Comedy is serious business and ballet even more so.”

At the post-show talk after, the beautifully spoken Associate Artistic Director expanded on this – explaining that the dancer’s technique is impeccable, but they must learn to break it – to add carefully choreographed missteps, modern moves and mime for comedic effect. The result is an almost pantomimesque comedy and farce mixed with stunningly strong ballet – and I mean strong.

Swan Lake trio, photo Giovanni Daniotti

In traditional ballet the gender and bodytype casting is often very strict, and dancers perform gender through each role and gesture. The female lead has a gentle, airy quality and the male lead is powerful and macho. Drag is the art of performing gender, and the Trocks have managed to mesh these worlds perfectly, subverting traditional roles and steps with reverence and respect for each artform.

The show itself was split into three acts, starting with scenes from Swan Lake, moving into a number of short modern ballet and traditional vignettes before finishing with a visually stunning rendition of Walpurgisnacht, a lavish, romanesque, mythical dance inspired by Bolshoi Ballet’s Valpurgeyeva Noch.

I particularly liked the nostalgic backdrops and costumes which leant a further nod to tradition. The most crowd-pleasing moment was ‘the dying swan’ which closed act two. One of ballet’s most recognisable roles, the swan in sparkling white tutu, slowly perishes in an impressively long section danced on pointe as feathers fell dramatically from her skirts.

Dying Swan, photo Roberto Ricci

The programming of acts was clever – starting with the most iconic works, and the most gags. Swans fell over one another, forgot the steps and booty-popped their way across the stage between incredible pointe work. Spotlights were pointed in the wrong direction and too much fog was wafted onto stage. As the night went on, the gags became less constant, and the ballet less mainstream. They finished on a rarely seen work with few jokes – just strong, confident, really beautiful dancing. The audience was enraptured and finished with multiple bows and standing ovations.

Walpurgisnacht photo Jim Coleman

I love seeing audiences enjoying dance, and had a fantastic time myself. It feels self indulgent when your interests intersect; and a night of drag, comedy and high-quality ballet was such a treat.

International touring shows like this to the UK wouldn’t be possible without the Dance Consortium who “exist to tour the best contemporary dance from across the world to local audiences across the UK & Ireland.” It felt like the audience really got a sense of how special it was to have Cardiff as a stop on the map for the company that tours the world.