queen777 Review: The Trocks Fill Out the Laughs With Dancing Chops

Arlene Crocequeen777, the great American dance critic who wrote for The New Yorker from 1973 to 1996, died on Monday morning, the day before Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo lifted the curtain on its December season at the Joyce Theater.

Many of Croce’s reviews — witty, biting and full of trenchant observations, both harsh and beautiful — were works of art themselves, including one from 1974 about the debut of Les Ballets Trockadero in a loft on 14th Street. The stage was the size of a handkerchief. The corps de ballet was a lonely five dancers.

New York, Croce wrote, “‘the dance capital of the world,’ has long needed a company of madmen to break us all up.”

Fifty years later, the madmen are still at it. Even as the all-male company has grown in size and in repertory, it still holds onto its dilapidated essence: Russian glamour as it frays around the edges. Could it sometimes use a spritz more? In the case of its newest dance, “Symphony,” a strong world premiere, it’s likely.

Laughter still ripples during performances by the Trocks, as they are known, but so does admiring applause. Alongside jokes is pointe work (the province of women in traditional companies) that seems to improve each season. The Trocks, though, can be more entertaining in male roles than female ones. The foppish prince, the hapless noblemen — humor is poured into them, while in the more demanding ballerina parts, some of the dancers place too much focus on making their technique bright and light. Equalizing the space between comedy and serious dancing is a delicate balance, but that’s what makes the Trocks sing.

On Tuesday, the first of two programs, the company presented a tight double feature: its vampiric version of Act II of “Giselle,” with décor by Edward Gorey; and “Symphony,” a take on George Balanchine’s “Symphony in C.” In “Symphony,” the rising young choreographer Durante Verzola presents his first Trockadero ballet, a brisk, rigorous and musical romp through selections by Charles Gounod.

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