Now that the holiday season is upon us that means the dance sensation, Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, is back performing at thetheater in New York City. Founded in 1974, against the backdrop of the Stonewall Uprising, their vision was to have men dance all the roles in classical ballets. While pirouetting in pointe shoes and tutus they lovingly parody the conventions of these traditional dances.
Fifty years ago, the Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo started kind of scrappy, performing in a second floor loft in Manhattan’s meatpacking district. The shows were held at the headquarters of the Westside Discussion Group, an offshoot of the Mattachine Society, a prominent gay rights organization. The company was founded by several ballet aficionados, including Peter Anastos, Anthony Bassae, and Natch Taylor. And to this day the Trocks continue to be ambassadors of L.G.B.T.Q.
Dobrin vividly remembers when he joined the company. “1980 was a completely different world for all of us,” he says. His first tour was in South America when military dictatorships were in full force. “I am quite sure the governments had no idea the Trocks were an all-male comedy ballet company in drag and would have never granted permission for us to tour to Brazil, Argentina, and Chile,” says Dobrin. “The governments possibly thought we were the Ballet of Monte Carlo.
Decades later the Trocks have continued to establish themselves as one of the world’s finest comic ballet troupes. They have performed around the world over 660 cities around the world from Moscow’s Bolshoi Theater in to the Chatelet in Paris to Kennedy Center Opera House with their resident orchestra.