NOWADAYS, it's hard to say which pleases Trocks fans more: the comedy mayhem of slips, trips and boomps-a-daisy mishaps, the stuff of their signature ballet-spoofery, or the remarkable finesse of these all-male ballerinas when they put burlesque to one side and dance, in diva-tastic mode, on pointe.
The current touring programme is entertainingly packed with both sides of the Trockadero coin. In Les Sylphides, the romantic Poet is hilariously out to lunch despite the best, coquettish efforts of Marina Plezegetovstageskaya (Roberto Forleo) while that ebullient morsel of pleasant peasanterie, La Vivandiere Pas de Six, flips brilliantly between stylistic exaggerations that are laughable and a serious understanding of the 19th-century choreographic whimsies that make us smile (but only when they're done straight and done well.)
A smoulderingly come-hither Odile (Chase Johnsey) plays cat-and-mouse with a Prince (Carlos Hopuy) who fails to recognise the right Swan Princess, but who is no slouch when it comes to firecracker solos. A reminder, really, that the Trocks high-end pointe-work is matched by a similar technical brio in the male roles that support the likes of Robert Carter's Bacchante in Walpurghis Night, the skittish slice of Russian camp that rejoices in a prancingly randy Pan (Boysie Dikobe) and four hot-to-trot male fauns.
The icing on this rich and fruity cake? The inimitable Ida Nevasayneva (Paul Ghiselin) moulting for Art as the Dying Swan. A collapsible anglepoise of limbs, the tragi-comic Ida fights against the fading of her spotlight.
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