On September 9th, 1974, a ballet company gave its premier performance, in a tiny theater in New York City's avant-garde Meatpacking District. What's avant-garde about ballet? Well, plenty, but in this case, it was an all-male company, Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, performing en travesti.
Though parodic in nature, the Trocks are legitimate ballet dancers, just as Peter Schickele is a legitimate musician. As such, their humor works on multiple levels; the spectacle is amusing even to audiences largely ignorant of the art, but their professionalism allows them to inject humor into their work intended to appeal to well-informed viewers as well.
Tropes:
- "Sesame Street" Cred: Appeared on Muppet Babies.
- Perpetual Molt: Their version of "The Dying Swan".
- The Runt at the End: Demonstrated nicely in this pas de quatre from Swan Lake.
- Straight to the Pointe: Unsurprisingly given that it's an all-male company, the dancers do far less pointe work in a given female variation than a female dancer wouldnote , as they have far less training (and therefore stamina) en pointe than professional female dancers do. However, the mere fact that they include any is a testament to their abilities as dancers.
- Tiny Guy, Huge Girl: The troupe makes a point of casting a huge guy in the lead female role and a tiny guy in the lead male role in Swan Lake, just for the comic effect it gives to some of the traditional ballet moves.
- Wholesome Crossdresser: The performers each generally have two personas, one male and one female.
