'Associated Press

Les Ballets de Trockadero from left: Tamara Boundiyeva, Suzina La Fuzziovitch, Cleopatra Vera Namethatunova and Zamarina Zamarkova.

Broad humor marks ballet

By Sally Johnson

NEW YORK (AP) Scene: Odette-Odile, held captive by the spell of the wicked von Rothbart, hurries across the stage for a farewell to her beloved Prince Siegfried. But this Odette is more than 6 feet tall, wears size 11 shoes and has hairy

arms.

Scene: The line of dancers begins an intricately woven chain of bodies with the precision and style of vintage Balanchine. But, at the end, the last ballerina becomes hopelessly caught in an octopus of arms and legs -and hangs there with all the grace of a side of meat in a butcher shop.

The company is Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo a travesty ballet that started in a living room in Greenwich Village in the early 1970s and performed on national television last spring. The 10 male dancers and their entourage just completed a swing through Detroit, Iowa City and Kalamazoo and are preparing for a sevenweek tour of South America, opening in Caracas March 28.

They will appear today in E.J. Thomas Hall in Akron.

Although the company has won legitimacy in the public eye, the art of travesty is a delicate one. A rival troupe, Trockadero Gloxinia, has fallen on hard times, largely because audience and critics see it as what one reviewer called "a drag queen display."

Trockadero de Monte Carlo, on the other hand, has a specific balletic point. The ballets in the repertoire make pointed reference to particular works or genres all based on the detailed knowledge of chief choreographer Peter Anastos.

Often, the humor is broad. In a sendup of the famous "Dying Swan," choreographed for Anna Pavlova by Michel Fokine, Trockadero ballerina Zamarina Zamarkova glides across the stage, leaving a trail of molting feathers in her wake. In "Giselle," Hilarion falls into the hands of those vengeful spirits of scorned maidens, the Wilis, who execute him. That's the straight version. But in Trockadero, he is tossed into the orchestra pit only to be beaten back when he tries to climb out.

Just as often, the humor is subtle. Anastos' stage name (all the dancers have adopted madeup Russian names) is Olga Tchikaboumskaya. It must be pronounced to be appreciated. One of his works, pointed straight at the heart of Martha Graham, goes by the name of "Phaedra-Monotonous No. 1148" a black-robed, somber-faced look at the high priestess of modern dance in which the dancers, in the words of the program

notes, "contract and repent."

Who are the Trocks and why are they doing. this? Anastos remembers back to 1973: “I went to see a performance of the Trockadero Gloxinia, went backstage to tell them how funny the performance was and they asked me to join. I was a ballet fan and it seemed perfect, so I did." Eventually, he tired of the exclusively homosexual nature of the troupe and left, taking some of the dancers with him.

Under the guidance of Anastos and co-director Natch Taylor, the company has grown considerably. In the beginning, the dancers were all friends of the directors. There was no requirement that they have professional training. What they must have is a stage presence and a touch of the comedian.

Inevitably, the Trocks have had to cope with prejudices about travesty an art form which is at least as old as Shakespeare and older than ballet itself. Originally, men took women's roles in drama because the church banned women from the stage. The first ballets, long before the days of point shoes, were danced by young boys. Not until the early 18th century in France and Italy did women defy that tradition and dance on stage.

The pendulum swung the other way during the age of romanticism. Women came to so dominate ballet at the Paris Opera that the larger women began to dance male parts. The men, during those years, went to Russia to the Bolshoi and Maryinski schools where, by the early 1900s, there was talk of putting males in point shoes. In short, travesty has meant many things to many people.

Now, according to Anastos, the word has lost its meaning. "My ballets," he says, "could be done by comediennes like Bea Lillie or Imogene Coca. The elements that make them funny transcend gender. The Royal Winnipeg Ballet wants me to stage one of my pieces for them; with the right casting, I can do it."

His thoughts of branching out are in keeping with his philosophy of the Trockadero: "Natch and I did not have a grand design to become famous," he says. "We work hard to entertain our audience; we're not. at all self-indulgent. Our best audiences are straight, middle-class professionals; to them, we're just a funny show.'

But he doesn't see the Trockadero as some form of goodwill ambassador for homosexuals. "That may be a by-product, but what we're about is dance. I think we do a lot for the ballet. In some ways, we make it more accessible than a regular company ever could."

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Associated Press

Suzina LaFuzziovitch (bottom) and Tamara Boumdiyeva in Ballets Trockadero.

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