The Trocks (Les Ballets Trockadero De Monte Carlo)

Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo & Shirley Maclaine in 1977

Founded in 1974, the concept of Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo was formulated by a group of ballet enthusiasts with the purpose of presenting a playful, entertaining view of traditional, classical ballet danced by males dancers.

The original concept has not changed: The Trocks, as they are affectionately known, make up a company of professional male dancers who have the fantastic talent to perform the full range of the ballet and modern dance repertoire, including classical and original works in playful mimicking renditions of the manners of those dance styles. Comedy is a huge part of The Trocks’ work, achieved by incorporating and exaggerating the accidents and mistakes that can happen with dance.

The dancers turn their hands (and feet!) to dancing swans, sylphs, romantic princesses, whilst performing skilled point work in giant shoes and enhancing the spirit of dance as an art form with their male forms. Whilst some may see The Trocks as ostentatious, their talent is undeniable in performing great classical roles with a few trip-ups and shoving partners thrown in for good measure! They are in no way demure and are ruthless in their fight against each other to become the ‘star’.

The company began by performing in the late-late shows in Off-Off Broadway lofts and quickly gained major critical acclaim, which established the Company as an artistic and popular success. By mid-1975, The Trocks had successfully blended their loving knowledge of dance and comic approach. Since then the company has developed an extensive touring schedule, with the US based company appearing in over 30 countries and over 500 cities worldwide since its founding.

As a testament to their success, The Trocks have won numerous awards including best classical repertoire from the Critic’s Circle National Dance Awards (2007) (UK), the Theatrical Managers Award (2006) (UK) and the 2007 Positano Award (Italy) for excellence in dance. In December 2008 the Trocks appeared at the 80th anniversary Royal Variety Performance, in aid of the Entertainment Artistes’ Benevolent Fund.

Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Focus On Leanne Benjamin

Leanne BenjaminLeanne Benjamin, the recently retired Principal of The Royal Ballet Company, is perhaps one of the recently departed dancers who will be the most greatly missed. She recently appeared in Carlos Acosta’s Classical Selection, dancing roles in extracts from some of the best-loved classical and neo-classical pieces such as Mayerling and Manon, with passionate vigour and full commitment to the production.

The Australian Benjamin trained at the Royal Ballet School from the age of sixteen, and won the prestigious Adeline Genée (now Genée International Ballet Competition) prize and the Prix de Lausanne on her way to the top. She joined The Royal Ballet as a First Soloist in 1992 after dancing with Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet, Deutsche Oper Ballet and London Festival Ballet (now English National Ballet). She was promoted to the rank of Principal in 1993 and since then has danced all leading (and very dramatic) classical roles such as MacMillan’s Manon, Romeo and Juliet and Mayerling. In addition to this Benjamin has had a number of roles created on her by choreographers including Wayne McGregor for his athletic Qualia, Christopher Wheeldon, Kim Brandstrup and Alexei Ratmansky.

This fiery and versatile dancer is renowned for excelling in the MacMillan repertory, yet Benjamin also worked with Frederick Ashton and Ninette De Valois: as a result she was awarded an OBE in 2005 for services to dance. Benjamin felt that performing Mayerling was the perfect way to step out of her ballet career as it was the piece which brought her into the company by Kenneth MacMillan, who died backstage soon after she joined the company. MacMillan acted as a mentor to Benjamin, changing her dancing career forever in seeing her potential at Berlin’s Deutsche Oper Ballet.

Benjamin give her final Covent Garden performance with The Royal Ballet with Mayerling earlier this year in June, a dramatic portrayal of false love and, equally, passion.

Carlos Acosta: Back And Not Alone…

Carlos AcostaCarlos Acosta’s return to the London Coliseum in August is highly anticipated, particularly as the casting and classical repertory has recently been announced, forming Acosta’s Classical Selection. Running from July 30 to August 4, the run is full of huge ballet stars and iconic works.

Acosta’s new show will be presenting highlights from his career in celebration of his 40th birthday, which is marked by 2013. For Classical Selection, the thrilling Principal will be joined on stage by some of his past dance partners and stars of The Royal Ballet, including principal dancers Marianela Nunez and Nehemiah Kish, ex-Royal Ballet Principal Leanne Benjamin, first soloists Ricardo Cervera and Yuhui Choe, soloists Melissa Hamilton and Eric Underwood and first artist Meaghan Grace Hinkis. The programme looks set to be captivating, and every ballet fans’ dream.

The pieces on offer throughout the run are some of the most iconic of the classical ballet world. Performances such as extracts from ManonWinter DreamsMayerlingGloria and Requiem were originally choreographed by one of the greatest ballet choreographers of the 20th century, Kenneth MacMillan. Also part of the programme is an extract from George Balanchine’s Apollo and from Rubies, and an extract from one of Frederick Ashton’s last works, the Rhapsody. The programme concludes with fellow Cuban choreographer and Rambert dancer at Miguel Altunaga’s 2009 solo Memoria, extracts from Mikhail Fokine’s Diana and Actaeon and Christopher Wheeldon’s Tryst. 

Acosta is currently performing as a Principal Guest Artist with The Royal Ballet, having also danced with English National Ballet in 1991/2 as a Principal – where his nephew now dances – the National Ballet of Cuba in 1992/3, and was a Principal with Houston Ballet from 1993/8. Acosta then joined The Royal Ballet and became a Principal Guest Artist in 2003.

Image courtesy of scillystuff on Flickr.

Roland Petit

Roland PetitRoland Petit, a choreographer in post-WWII ballet, was responsible for defining a new French chic and erotic frankness in dance, creating many roles for his wife, Zizi Jeanmaire. With July 2013 the second anniversary of his death, there has recently been a Moscow Stanislavsky production of Petit’s Coppélia, receiving mixed reviews.

Born in 1924 Paris, Petit began as a classical dancer but rebelled against the traditionalism of the Paris Opera Ballet. By 25, he had created two of his most iconic ballets, Le jeune homme et la mort and Carmen, for which he is perhaps most well-known and popular. The ballets caused a sensation worldwide and Petit became an exciting name in French dance.

Petit was accepted at the Paris Opera Ballet aged 16. He was promoted to soloist by the director Serge Lifar (Diaghilev’s last protégé), and was taken under the wing of two leading Diaghilev associates who influenced Petit by the cosmopolitan artistic post-war Paris. At 21 Petit founded Les Ballets des Champs-Elysées and reinvented the ‘suffering, virginal ballerina’ as a provocative, irresistible femme fatale; other post-war work includes Les Forains Les demoiselles de la nuit (for Margot Fonteyn), Le LoupCyrano de Bergerac and Notre-Dame de Paris, which still remain today.  Aside from the world of ballet, Petit charmed Elizabeth Taylor and Rita Hayworth in 1955 Hollywood, and went on to choreograph the 1955 Fred Astaire musical Daddy Long Legs, Hans Christian AndersenThe Glass Slipper, Black Tights, and Folies-Bergère.

Petit returned to the Paris Opera Ballet as director in 1970 for a few months, and 1972 saw him take leadership of the Ballet de Marseille and produce the world’s major ballerinas for the following 25 years, such as Maya Plisetskaya and Natalia Makarova. Petit left Marseille in 1998 and withdrew all his ballets when he learnt of his successor, going on to travel widely, creating ballets and mounting old works for companies in Paris, Tokyo, Moscow and St Petersburg, South Africa, Italy and Beijing, having created over 170 ballets.

Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

The New Nureyev?

Rudolph NureyevFollowing performances of three young Russian men – Ivan Vasiliev, Sergei Polunin and Vadim Muntagirov – there has been some speculation from dance critics as to whether any of these men may become the next Rudolf Nureyev, one of the greatest male ballet dancers of the twentieth century and an extremely charismatic performer.

There have been recent starring roles danced by each of the dancers for various companies. Ivan Vasiliev, a Principal dancer of the Mikhailovsky Ballet and American Ballet Theatre Guest Artist with impressive thighs and a wonderful sense of characterisation danced Albrecht in Giselle opposite his on and off-stage partner Natalia Osipova. Although small, Vasiliev is a man of gigantic leap and power, executing his directed movement with conviction and a desire to tell the story to the last detail.

Polunin, on the other end, appears to have a notorious want not to tell the story, either his own or the one he should be dancing. Polunin has recently been the subject of much dance press in his desertion of the production of Peter Schaufuss’ Midnight Express, in which he should have danced Billy. This was after Polunin walked from The Royal Ballet of which he was a highly regarded Principal, with a greater desire for money and tattoos as a typical young man. Here, it is the intrigue of Polunin that sets him apart.

Elsewhere, Muntagirov, as one of English National Ballet’s revered Lead Principals under Artistic Director Tamara Rojo, is a sight to behold. Having been a Guest Artist greatly received by many international ballet companies, Muntagirov is usually partnered with Lead Principal Daria Klimentova. This highly successful partnership has often been likened to that of the iconic Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn duet as sparkling stars, just slightly unattainable. In this sense, it looks likely that Muntagirov will excel even further than he has a young dancer, creating a remarkable career.

Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Tommy Franzen: The Artist Who Needs No Introduction

Tommy FranzenTommy Franzen needs no introduction. Beginning his dance training in Sweden, he was only ever interested in street dance classes. Tommy then began working professionally at the young age of 14 in the musical Joseph, hopping from musical to musical before embarking on a 3-year performing arts diploma course at the Urdang Academy in London, for which he received a scholarship.

He is probably mostly recognised as the runner-up of BBC 1’s So You Think You Can Dance 2010, but other dance fans may have spotted him in Mamma Mia – The Movie, The Pepsi Max Advert Can Fu and the Handover Ceremonies at Bejing Olympics 2008.

Having worked professionally as a performing artist for 16 years, Tommy has recently delved into choreography, for example working on ZooNation’s Some Like It Hip Hop, performing in the show as Simeon Sun. Currently Tommy is working with the Russell Maliphant Company and is touring internationally with the show The Rodin Project.

This year Tommy was nominated for an award at the National Dance Awards in the “Best Male Performance (Modern)” category for his efforts in Goldberg at The Royal Opera House and Blaze at Sadler’s Wells Peacock Theatre. Tommy has also been nominated for an Olivier Award (2012) for Outstanding Achievement in Dance.

Here Tommy talks about his dance career to date, the joy of rehearsals, and his biggest inspiration, Bruce Lee.

When did you begin dancing and why?

I started dancing at age of 11 back in 1992. My sister, Elena, was taking classes and performing for a man called David Johnson who came from California to Sweden to open up a dance school. That’s the first time I had seen anyone dance hip hop dance styles and it grabbed me straight away. They caught me sometimes doing the Robot, basically imitating them so Elena thought that maybe I should try and go to a class. I did, and after the first class I never wanted to go back again as I thought I was the worst one in there. My dad and Elena were surprised and luckily convinced me that I was actually the best of the lot! So I changed my mind in a second, went to the next class and have never looked back since.

What were your early years of dancing and training like?

I started with classes that incorporated locking, popping, general hip hop and some tricks. That was at David’s dance school ‘Crazy Feet’ in Lund, Sweden.

How does that compare to now?

Through the years I’ve danced many styles but nowadays when I go to class it’s either hip hop, contemporary or ballet.

Have you always been interested in choreography?

No, I haven’t always been interested in choreography. I hadn’t thought of doing it really when my first opportunity came along and I choreographed for a show called Blaze, which we played at the Peacock Theatre in London and is now touring the world. Since then I’ve choreographed for Some Like It Hip Hop and Cher Lloyd. It’s not my main focus but I do really enjoy it.

What would you say was your choreographic triumph?

Definitely Some Like It Hip Hop. Saying that, I think Blaze put me on the map but I did a lot more for SLIHH and I’m more proud of my efforts in that show. We’ve been nominated for the choreography several times so we must’ve done something right!! The other choreographers are Kate Prince and Carrie-Anne Ingrouille with additional choreography by Duwane Taylor and Ryan Chappell.

How long have you been performing and choreographing?

I’ve been performing for 21 years and choreographing for 3 years.

What is your favourite role you have danced and favourite choreographer you have danced for, and why?

I must say my character Simeon Sun in Some Like It Hip Hop has been a right ball to play: so much fun. Lots of acting and very challenging dance wise. I’ve only got myself to blame for that! I would probably say that there are three favourite choreographers I’ve worked with. Kim Brandstrup, Russell Maliphant and Kate Prince, who are all very different and very good in their own field of work.

What do you like most about rehearsals?

The best thing about rehearsals is the creation period. You are being creative and you train hard. Then we you start performing then things are pretty much set in stone but you get the pleasure of sharing with an audience. I love the feeling of dancing in front of an audience.

What is the best part about dance?

It’s so much fun!!

Who would you most like to work with, dead or alive?

Bruce Lee without doubt, he’s always been my biggest inspiration.

What’s next for you?

There are a few projects coming up but I can’t disclose anything yet. I will be working with Boy Blue Entertainment on their new show at The Barbican in October. I also spend a lot of time building two businesses at the moment. As dancers we don’t have a pension for when we retire at a relatively young age so I think it’s important to secure your financial future by other means during your dance career.

The Jazz Master: Jack Cole

Jack ColeJack Cole, one of the greatest yet least known jazz choreographers is thought of by some as the father of theatrical jazz dance, responsible for the jazz we know today. He was the influencer behind huge choreographic names such as Bob Fosse, with his work reaching the likes of modern dance greats Alvin Ailey and Jerome Robbins. Cole worked to create the style of jazz that is still widely received today, on Broadway, in Hollywood movie musicals and in music videos.

Cole was born in 1911 (he lived until 1974) and studied, as many did modern dance pioneers, with the Denishawn Dance Company under Ruth St Denis and Ted Shawn in the early twentieth century. Cole went on to make his professional debut in 1930, but abandoned modern dance for a more commercial style of dancing on Broadway and in movies. Jazz, at this point, was hugely popular, but did not employ any use of technique.

As a result, Cole began to create his own style of modern dance. He continued to work with modern dancers Doris Humphrey and Charles Weidman to form a signature style. This style was aided by Cole’s study of the Indian dance technique Bharatanatyam, forming the basis of his unique jazz technique and choreography through the precise isolations of the head, arms and fingers, in addition to the swift changes of direction. Cole consequently named his jazz style ‘urban folk dance’, having observed the Lindy Hoppers and their integral rhythms, incorporating this with Indian styles and creating the foundation of the theatrical jazz style.

Cole’s choreography saw him involved in various Broadway shows, such as Alive and Kicking (1950), A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1962) and Man of La Macha (1965), for which he was nominated for a Tony award. However, today Cole is remembered for his work with films of some 25 credited and non-credited works. In addition to working as a choreographer and performer, Cole also established dance training at Columbia Pictures, in which his programme included Humphrey/Weidman technique, Cecchetti ballet, East Indian dance and flamenco, where he worked with dancers such as Carol Haney and Gwen Verdon, who went on to become Fosse’s muse.

Matt Mattox, the iconic jazz dancer and teacher most associated with the Cole style broke the Cole lineage in America when he moved to London in 1970. It has only been recently that there has been a renewed interest in Cole’s work.

Christopher Marney: Dancer, Choreographer, Dance Extraordinaire!

Christopher MarneyChristopher Marney is a man of many talents. Perhaps most well-known for his recent depiction of Count Lilac in Matthew Bourne’s Sleeping Beauty, Marney has worked tirelessly to build his reputation as an esteemed performer, and now sought-after choreographer for professional dance companies.

Leaving aside Marney’s creative endeavours, he has previously danced with companies such as George Piper Dances, Gothenburg Ballet, Michael Clark Company and Bern Ballet, and as part of Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures danced roles in productions such as Dorian Gray, Cinderella and Swan Lake. Choreographically, Marney has also created for companies including Ballet Central, Regensburg Opera House and Ballet Black.

Here Marney takes a moment out of his busy touring schedule to answer a few questions about his exciting role in the world of performing arts!

What were your early years of dancing and training like?

I started dancing because I was interested in acting and musical theatre, and knew from being taken to lots of theatre that it was also important to have a strong dance technique if I wanted to be in musicals. I always knew I wanted to perform, really from the first time I went to the theatre (it was the Queens Theatre in Hornchurch!) but I didn’t know which aspect I was most suited to so I went to Italia Conti at the weekends where I trained in ballet, jazz, singing and acting.

This alongside studying for my LAMDA acting exams and performing with companies like The Chelmsford Ballet Company, I was enabling myself to gain an all-round training, and by the time I reached 16 was able to make a decision about the best route to take. This was ballet, but I still had a strong interest in the ‘performance’ side of dance in particular being a character and storytelling. The natural choice was to go to Central School of Ballet where then Director Christopher Gable stood for exactly those things. He was and remains to be a huge inspiration for my career path and performing choices.

Have you always been interested in choreography? What/who inspired you to first create?

I always had lots of ideas that I thought would make good theatre and told best through dance, but it wasn’t until I moved back from Sweden where I was a dancer at the Gothenburg Ballet, that I began to choreograph. I had been immersed in a company where we were working with some of the best European choreographers, and having experienced a wide range of styles and learning about how choreographers work very differently to each other, I felt ready to put some of my own ideas into practice.

I think I have taken aspects of many people I’ve worked with as an influence to create. I admire the fluidity and ingenuity of Jiri Kylian, the way Mats Ek has intention behind his every move and, of course, the storytelling of Matthew Bourne.

What would you say was your choreographic triumph, or was there a work that put you on the choreography map?

Hotel Follies was a show that I conceived and really got off the ground in 2009, at the Arts Theatre in the West End. It was not only a way of bringing together a mix of ideas I had been developing with great performers I had met along the way, but also a good showcase for my work. The profile of the show and venue it was performed in meant that it was an opportunity to invite directors and industry professionals. This led to commissions for further work on professional companies and schools.

As for a triumph there are a few ballets I am very proud of because either the collaboration with the dancers worked and they completely understood what it was I was getting at or the combination of choices such as the music, my intention and the casting all seemed to come together. There are formulas I like to work by but sometimes you can’t say exactly why it is that you are particularly moved by one piece more than another! Duologue that I created for Ballet Central in 2010 was one of them partly because I was back in the school after ten years of leaving and the inspiration and memories of Christopher Gable were so apparent.

How does choreographing tie in with dancing with New Adventures, or are they completely separate?

They were completely separate until Sleeping Beauty recently, though Matthew has always been very supportive of my career as a choreographer. For Beauty he asked me to be his Associate Choreographer on the piece which linked the two. Because I have a long standing relationship with the company I think he felt confident with me knowing the style and way the shows worked. I provided him with another choreographic eye, created material for the new piece and assisted in teaching and staging the show. In September I will stage one of his first pieces, Spitfire on a company in Scotland which will be a lot of work to mount and teach the piece in about a week! I danced it on tour last year and also performed it on Matthew Bourne’s Christmas on Channel 4, so it is still quite fresh in my mind!

What is your favourite role you have danced?

Similar to my inspiration for choreographing, there are many roles I have loved for different reasons. I have to say the Prince in Bourne’s Swan Lake is the ultimate role for a dancer who wants to act and tell a story. He goes on a huge journey and reaches a tragic ending, bittersweet though ultimately discovering what he was living his life for. It’s a part I first played when I was twenty and have revisited many times since.

Who do you channel when you perform, or is it a different person for each role?

Each role takes a lot of research into existing or fictional characters. You build a library of images, books and DVDs that help to create the character you are playing. Recently I created the role of a Japanese fisherman’s WIFE in a new production by Will Tucket in Japan! Obviously that took some looking into! It was called The Crane Maiden and is a very famous tale in Japanese culture. Taking on a role knowing the audience already relate to this character, plus it being a different sex, I knew I had to do a lot of background work.

What do you like most about choreographing?

The thing I love about choreographing is seeing my idea come to life. I love the challenge of telling a story when there are no words and you have to convey it all physically, and working with and getting the most out of the dancers is particularly rewarding. Seeing the process from the initial first rehearsal to the realisation of it onstage can be nerve-wracking but being able to share your work and message is ultimately fulfilling.

What is the best part about dance?

I think the best part is when it touches someone and a person can be moved or made to feel something by what they are witnessing. It is amazing how that cycle continues to inspire generations.

What’s next for you?

I continually enjoy working with new people because the reason I love this profession is partly the fact that you can keep moving and meeting people, travelling and seeing new places, building up knowledge of the art form which helps sculpt you as a person.

The next half of the year is really busy with experiences just like that. I have performances of Dorian Gray in Tokyo in July, we tour the USA this autumn with Sleeping Beauty as well as opening our Broadway run, and then in December and January I will be choreographing new pieces for Ballet Black and Ballet Central. I’ve also recently moved so am looking forward to spending some time over the summer settling in and being with my family.

Coppelia’s Bad Boy

Sergei PoluninSergei Polunin, the notorious “bad boy” of the ballet world, is set to appear in The Moscow Stanislavsky Ballet’s production of Roland Petit’s Coppelia at the London Coliseum in July this year for just six performances.

Petit’s version of the work, which debuted in 1975, is just one interpretation of one of the most well-known ballets with the story including magic, humour, love and even a happy ending!

Staged by Luigi Bonino and set to music by Leo Delibes, this particular production contains all the loved classics of the classical ballet, including the Mazurka, the Waltz of the Hours and the energetic Czardas dances.

The Moscow Stanislavsky Ballet is lead by internationally renowned dancer Igor Zelensky and will bring together some of the century’s finest principal dancers such as the 23 year old Ukranian star Polunin and up-and-coming ballerina Erika Mikirticheva, who will be dancing Franz and Swanilda respectively amongst two other casts. As an incredible yet completely notorious talent, Polunin is set to wow hungry audiences as he helps tell the story of red-blooded Franz’s comic adventures in his falling in love with the beautiful (doll) Coppelia.

The Moscow Stanislavsky Ballet was born in 1939 as a result of the joining of the Nemirovich-Danchenko Music Theatre and the Moscow Art Ballet, founded by the former Bolshoi ballet star Victorian Kriger. The established company quickly became one Russia’s leading ballet companies and went on to tour extensively across Europe and the USA. Today, the company has since staged numerous productions such as Cinderella, Don Quixote, Giselle, La Sylphide, Mayerling, Napoli, Swan Lake, The Nutcracker and even The Little Mermaid. This demonstrates that this first-class company still provides much for the ballet world, and with fantastic casts for its productions, will continue to do so well into the future.

Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Bob Fosse: The Iconic Mover

Bob FosseJune 23 will mark the anniversary of dance legend Bob Fosse’s birth in 1927, almost 90 years since. Fosse was an American actor, dancer, musical theatre choreographer, director, screenwriter, film editor and film director, with some of his dance work including The Pajama Game (1954), Damn Yankees (1955), How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying (1961), Sweet Charity (1966), Pippin (1972), Cabaret (1972) and Chicago (1975). He won eight Tony Awards for choreography and one for direction.

Fosse was born the son of a vaudevillian and began performing in vaudeville as a child. By his early teens he was appearing on stage in a variety of burlesque shows and he began studying dance at a small institution, but soon moved on to the Frederick Weaver Ballet School where he was the only male enrolled.

Fosse’s third and last wife, Broadway legend Gwen Verdon, helped to define and perfect what is now known as “Fosse”, the unique and distinct style which Fosse used to choreograph and become such an iconic mover. With fantastic energy and artistry, Fosse was one of this century’s great choreographers, forging his craft on the Broadway stage and on film and becoming as big an artist as Vaslav Nijinsky and George Balanchine.

As an artist, Fosse was known for his thoroughly modern style, training under jazz star Jack Cole, a creating a signature style which could not be mistaken for any other movement. His movement vocabulary consists of snapping fingers, hip and shoulder rolls and backward exits alongside exaggerated hip movements, struts and white-gloved, single-handed gestures. Some of his stereotypical style was born of his dislike of certain parts of his body, such as white gloves to hide his large hands and tilted bowler hats to hide his balding head. Despite this, his movement and consequent dancers he taught were fluid and angular, full of style and charisma.

Image courtesy of Wikipedia.