The performance will be approximately two hours. There will be three acts and two intermissions.
Any video and/or audio recording of this production is strictly prohibited.
Dear Arts Supporters,
On behalf of everyone at Viterbo University, I would like to welcome you to the Fine Arts Center as we celebrate the return of in-person performances. The pandemic necessitated a year and a half-long pause in our live event schedule, and both our artists and audience members have been sorely missed. It is truly great to have you with us.
It’s only fitting that the Fine Arts Center should be fully used to its intended purpose during its 50th anniversary year. Opened in 1971, it remains not only the premier arts facility in the region, but also a wonderful testament to the vision and courage of the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration who made it possible. Their collective love and appreciation for the arts led to countless cultural opportunities in the greater La Crosse community and has enhanced all our lives.
New Fine Arts Center director Dillion McArdle and his staff have an outstanding season planned for you this year. I invite you to pick up an On Stage book or visit the Viterbo website for the complete schedule. There is a wide variety of offerings from which to choose, and tickets make wonderful gifts. Included in the schedule are the Conservatory for the Performing Arts student productions. I am continually amazed at the incredible talent of our students, and seeing them put it to use always fills me with pride, no matter their role, pursuit, or field of study.
While live performances and other events have returned, we must remain vigilant in the fight against the spread of COVID-19. I ask that you adhere to the university’s safety policies, including remaining masked while anywhere inside the building.
The arts will always be an integral part of the Viterbo University experience, which is made even more special through the support of our patrons, benefactors, sponsors, and volunteers. It would not be the same without you. Thank you.
Rick Trietley,
President
Colette Adae, Ludmila Beaulemova,
Varvara Bratchikova, Maria Clubfoot,
Holly Dey-Abroad, Nadia Doumiafeyva,
Helen Highwaters, Elvira Khababgallina,
Varvara Laptopova,
Marina Plezegetovstageskaya,
Grunya Protozova, Eugenia Repelskii
Olga Supphozova, Maya Thickenthighya,
Minnie van Driver
Sascha Altschmerz, Jacques d’Aniels,
Bruno Backpfeifengesich, Boris Dumbkopf,
Nicholas Khachafallenjar, Dmitri Legupski,
Marat Legupski, Sergey Legupski,
Timur Legupski, Vladimir Legupski,
Yuri Smirnov, Kravlji Snepek,
William Vanilla, Jens Witzelsucht,
Tino Xirau-Lopez
Artistic Director: Tory Dobrin
Associate Director: Isabel Martinez Rivera
Managing Director: Liz Harler
LE LAC DES CYGNES (SWAN LAKE, ACT II)
Music By: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Choreography After: Lev Ivanovich Ivanov
Costumes By: Mike Gonzales
Decor By: Clio Young
Lighting By: Kip Marsh
Swept up into the magical realm of swans (and birds), this elegiac phantasmagoria of variations and ensembles in line and music is the signature work of Les Ballets Trockadero. The story of Odette, the beautiful princess turned into a swan by the evil sorcerer, and how she is nearly saved by the love of Prince Siegfried, was not so unusual a theme when Tchaikovsky first wrote his ballet in 1877–the metamorphosis of mortals to birds and visa versa occurs frequently in Russian folklore. The original Swan Lake at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow was treated unsuccessfully; a year after Tchaikovsky's death in 1893, the St. Petersburg Maryinsky Ballet produced the version we know today. Perhaps the world's best known ballet, its appeal seems to stem from the mysterious and pathetic qualities of the heroine juxtaposed with the canonized glamour of 19th century Russian ballet.
Benno: Tino Xirau-Lopez
(friend and confidant to)
Varvara Laptopova (Queen of the)
Swans:
Colette Adae, Ludmila Beaulemova, Varvara Bratchikova,
Holly Dey-Abroad, Minnie van Driver, Elvira Khababgallina,
Grunya Protazova, Maya Thickenthighya
(all of whom got this way because of)
Von Rothbart: Yuri Smirnov
(an evil wizard who goes about turning girls into swans)
–INTERMISSION–
PAS DE DEUX OR MODERN WORK TO BE ANNOUNCED
VIVALDI SUITE
Music By: Antonio Vivaldi
Choreography After: George Balanchine
Costumes By: Mike Gonzales
Lighting By: Kip Marsh
Stylistic heir to Balanchine's Middle-Blue-Verging-On-Black-and White Period, this ballet has become a primer in identifying stark coolness and choreosymphonic delineation in the new(neo) neo-new classic dance. It has been called a wristwatch for Balanchine clock-time.
Marina Plezegetovstageskaya
William Vanilla
with
Corps de Ballets
–INTERMISSION–
MAJISIMAS
Music By: Jules Massenet
Staged and with Additional Choreography By: Raffaele Morra
Costumes By: Christopher Anthony Vergara
Lighting By: Jax Messenger
The music for Majisimas, which occurs in the second act of the 1885 opera El Cid, provides the opportunity for a seductive, exotic, and Spanish-flavored demonstration of the intricate beauty of classical ballet technique.
Nadia Doumiafeyva, Maya Thickenthighya, Minnie van Driver, Maria Clubfoot,
Jacques d’Aniels, Sascha Altschmerz, Jens Witzelsucht, Dmitri Legupski
with
Corps de Ballet
Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo was founded in 1974 by a group of ballet enthusiasts for the purpose of presenting a playful, entertaining view of traditional, classical ballet in parody form and en travesti, Les Ballets Trockadero first performed in the late-late shows in Off-Off Broadway lofts. The Trocks, as they are affectionately known, quickly garnered a major critical essay by Arlene Croce in The New Yorker, which combined with reviews in The New York Times and The Village Voice established the company as an artistic and popular success. By mid-1975, the Trocks’ loving knowledge of dance, comic approach, and commitment to the notion that men can, indeed, dance en pointe without falling flat on their faces, was already garnering attention beyond the company’s New York home. Articles and notices in publications such as Variety, Oui, The London Daily Telegraph, as well as a Richard Avedon photo essay in Vogue, made the company nationally and internationally known.
The 1975-76 season was a year of growth and full professionalization. The company found management, qualified for the National Endowment for the Arts Touring Program, and hired a full-time teacher and ballet mistress to oversee daily classes and rehearsals. Also in this season, they made their first extended tours of the U.S. and Canada. Packing, unpacking, and repacking tutus and drops, stocking giant-sized toe shoes by the case; running for planes and chartered buses all became routine parts of life.
Since those beginnings, the Trocks have established themselves as a major dance phenomenon throughout the world. They have participated in dance festivals worldwide and there have been television appearances as varied as a Shirley MacLaine special, The Dick Cavett Show, What's My Line?, Real People, On-Stage America, with Kermit and Miss Piggy on their show Muppet Babies, and a BBC Omnibus special on the world of ballet hosted by Jennifer Saunders. Documentaries about the company, Rebels on Pointe by Bobbi Jo Hart, and Ballerina Boys by Chana Gazit and Marite Barylick, which aired on American Masters have been released in the past few years. Awards that the Trocks have garnered over the years include: Best Classical Repertoire from the prestigious Critic’s Circle National Dance Awards (2007) (UK) and nominated as Outstanding Company for 2016; the Theatrical Managers Award (2006) (UK); and the 2007 Positano Award (Italy) for excellence in dance. In December 2008, the Trocks performed for members of the British royal family at the 80th anniversary Royal Variety Performance, to aid of the Entertainment Artistes’ Benevolent Fund, in London.
The Trocks’ numerous tours have been both popular and critical successes–their frenzied annual schedule has included appearances in over 35 countries and over 600 cities worldwide since its founding in 1974, including seasons at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow and the Chatelet Theater in Paris. The company continues to appear in benefits for international AIDS organizations such as DRA (Dancers Responding to AIDS) and Classical Action in New York City, the Life Ball in Vienna, Austria, Dancers for Life in Toronto, Canada, London’s Stonewall Gala, and Germany’s AIDS Tanz Gala.
The original concept of Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo has not changed. It is a company of professional male dancers performing the full range of the ballet and modern dance repertoire, including classical and original works in faithful renditions of the manners and conceits of those dance styles. The comedy is achieved by incorporating and exaggerating the foibles, accidents, and underlying incongruities of serious dance. The fact that men dance all the parts–heavy bodies delicately balancing on toes as swans, sylphs, water sprites, romantic princesses, angst–ridden Victorian ladies-enhances rather than mocks the spirit of dance as an art form, delighting and amusing the most knowledgeable, as well as novices, in the audiences.
For the future, there are plans for new works in the repertoire: new cities, states, and countries to perform in; and for the continuation of the Trocks’ original purpose: to bring the pleasure of dance to the widest possible audience. They will, as they have done for more than 47 years, "Keep on Trockin'."
was orphaned at the age of three when her mother, a ballerina of some dubious distinction, impaled herself on the first violinist’s bow after a series of rather uncontrolled fouette voyage. Colette was raised and educated with the “rats” of the Opera House but the trauma of her childhood never let her reach her full potential. However, under the kind and watchful eye of the Trockadero, she has begun to flower and we are sure you will enjoy watching her growth.
famed country and western ballerina and formerly prima ballerina of the grand Ole Opry, recently defected from that company when they moved to their new Nashville home. The rift was caused by their refusal to stage the ballet with which her name has become synonymous, I Never Promised You a Rose Adagio.
People’s Artist and Cat’s Meow, was educated at the Revanchist Institute. She began her career as Pistachia in V. Stolichnaya’s production of the The Nutcracker and achieved stardom as Odette/Odile/Juliet/Giselle/Aurora in the famous Night of the 1000 Tsars. Her repertoire encompasses nearly all the works in which she appears.
Last of the great American Indian ballerinas: Larkin, Tallchief (Maria and Marjorie), Clubfoot. Maria, pride of the Luni Tribe, blazed a path with her literal interpretation of Slaughter on 10th Avenue, set in the club at Mohegan Sun. Maria appears with the Trockadero under special permission from federal authorities.
Miss Dey-Abroad lacks the talent and intelligence that are required to be good at dancing and did not understand that this lack of talent and intelligence are often the same qualities needed to recognize that one is not good at dancing—and if one lacks such talent and intelligence, one remains ignorant that one is not good at dancing. Consequently, she auditioned for the Trocks and was accepted.
No one who has seen Heliazpopkin will soon forget the spiritual athleticism of Nadia Doumiafeyva, a child of Caucasus who changed her name for show business reasons. Her fiery attack, combined with her lyric somnolence, produces confusion in audiences the world over, particularly when applied to ballet.
has defected to America three times and been promptly returned on each occasion–for "artistic reasons." Recently discovered en omelette at the Easter Egg Hunt in Washington, D.C., she was hired by the Trockadero, where her inexplicable rise to stardom answers the musical question: Who put the bop in the bop-shibop shibop?
voted “the girl most likely to,” is the living example that a common hard-working girl can make it to the top. Our friendly ballerina was pounding the pavement looking for work when the Trockadero found her. Her brilliant technique has endeared her to several fans, as well as to some of the stage hands. Her motto is “a smile is better than talent.” Her nickname is... well, never mind what her nickname is.
is one of those rare dancers who, with one look at a ballet, not only knows all the steps but can also dance all the roles. As a former member of the Kiev Toe and Heel Club, she was awarded first-prize at the Pan Siberian Czardash and Kazotski Festival for artistic mis-interpretation.
Any ballet goer who saw Mme. Plez-egetov-stage-skaya dancing on a herring in her first American tour is not likely to forget her outstanding performance as the Sour Cream Fairy. One of the world’s great dialectical sophists, Honored Artist Plezegetovstageskaya came to the stage from the Bolshoi Academy of Dance Polemics where she excelled in heroic parts and tableaux vivifies. There she gained youthful fame as a practitioner of barefoot naturalism right up to the eyebrows. Following her graduation she was drafted by the Trockadero for a player to be named later.
is the missing link between the crustaceans of the old Russian school and the more modern amphibians now dancing. Before joining the Trockadero, Grunya was the featured ballerina at Sea World, where her famous autobiographic solo, Dance of the Lower Orders, brought several marine biologists to tears.
The secrets of Mme. Repelskii's beginnings lie shrouded behind the Kremlin wall; in fact, no fewer than six lie in the wall (in jars of assorted sizes). Dancing lightly over pogroms and other sordid reorganizational measures, Eugenia has emerged as a ballerina nonpareil whose pungency is indisputable.
made her first public appearance in a KGB line-up under dubious circumstances. After a seven-year-to-life hiatus, she now returns to her adoring fans. When questioned about her forced sabbatical, Olga’s only comment was “I did it for Art’s sake.” Art, however, said nothing.
radioactive properties prevented her from appearing with the Trockadero until her recent release from a special sanitarium on the Black Sea. A brilliant virtuoso in the Moscow style, Madame Thickenthighya’s torque was applied to the running of Generator 14 near the Gorsky Dam during the period of her political disgrace. She is, this season, reinstated to her unique position in the ballet world.
Always running to rehearsals, costume fittings and performances, Miss Driver has a strong sense of movement. She has performed worldwide and has a natural aptitude for touring. Famous for her beautiful port de bras, she gives credit to her many hours behind the wheel.
was originally trained as an astronaut before entering the world of ballet. Strong but flexible, good natured but dedicated, sensible but not given to unbelievable flights of fantastic behavior, Mr. d’Aniels is an expert on recovering from ballet injuries (including the dread “Pavlova’s clavicle”).
has weariness with the same old issues that he always had—the same boring flaws and anxieties he has been gnawing on for years regarding pirouettes en dedans and en dehors, which leaves him soggy and tasteless and inert regarding petit allegro, with nothing interesting left to think about regarding roles performed throughout his career, nothing left to do but spit them out and wander off to the backyard, ready to dig up some fresher pain he might have buried long ago.
soared into prominence as the first East German defector whose leave-taking was accomplished at the virtual insistence of the defectees (although in subsequent days Herr Backpfeifengesicht was accused of abandoning his joyous comrades for “a mountain of beer and an ocean of dollars”). His meteoric rise to stardom caused him to be named Official Bicentennial Porteur by a committee of New York balletomanes who singled out his winning feet and losing smile.
has been with the greatest ballerinas of our time and he has even danced with some of them. One of the first defective Russian male stars, he left the motherland for purely capitalistic reasons. Amazingly, between his appearances on television and Broadway and in movies, commercials, magazines, special events, and women’s nylons, he occasionally still has time to dance.
the demi-semi-hemi-character dancer from innermost Outer Tashkent, was awarded the Order of Stalin for his partnering techniques. Although no ballerina has ever lived to describe the thrill of his touch, he continues to astound the public (and elude the police) with his brute strength. He is fondly known in the Trockadero as "Igor the Crusher."
Dmitri, Marat, Sergey, Timur, and Vladimir are not really brothers, nor are their names really Dmitri, Marat, Sergey, Timur, or Vladimir, nor are they real Russians, nor can they tell the difference between a pirouette and a jete...but...well...they do move about rather nicely...and...they fit into the costumes.
At the age of 16, Yuri ran away from home and joined the Kirov Opera because he thought Borodin was a prescription barbiturate. Luckily for the Trockadero, he soon discovered that he didn’t know his arias from his elbow, and decided to become a ballet star instead.
comes to the Trockadero from his split–level birthplace in Siberia, where he excelled in toe, tap, acrobatic, and Hawaiian. This good-natured Slav is famous for his breathtaking technique–a blend of froth and frou-frou centered on a spine of steel, painfully acquired at the hands and feet of his teacher, Glib Generalization, who has already trained many able dancers. As an artist in the classical, heroic, tragical mold, young Kravlji wrenched the heart of all who saw him dance Harlene, the Goat Roper in The Best Little Dacha in Sverdlovsk.
Despite the fact that he is American, he is very popular within the company. He is extremely personable, the ballerinas very much enjoy dancing with him, the management finds him agreeable, his costumes are never soiled, his fans admire his directness, he photographs well, he keeps regular hours, brushes his teeth after every meal, and he has never said a bad word about anybody. He will never really understand Russian ballet.
Mr. Witzelsucht has a pure and rare neurological disorder characterized by a tendency to make puns or tell inappropriate jokes or pointless stories in socially inappropriate situations, along with a pathological giddiness with lunatic mood swings. As he does not understand that this behavior is abnormal, he has found a place in the company as one of the more comedic artists.
a well-known figure to the Off-Off-Off audiences, returns to the Trockadero flushed from last season's Nutcracker, in which he played the fiendishly difficult role of the Father. His numerous theatrical successes have not prevented his stern, aristocratic family from disavowing any claims he might make to title.
Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo
Box 1325, Gracie Station
New York City, New York 10028
Olga Supphozova and Yuri Smirnov: Robert Carter
Minnie van Driver and William Vanilla: Ugo Cirri
Elvira Khababgallina and Sergey Legupski: Kevin Garcia
Varvara Bratchikova and Dmitri Legupski: Giovanni Goffredo
Maria Clubfoot and Tino Xirau-Lopez: Alejandro Gonzalez
Helen Highwaters and Vladimir Legupski: Duane Gosa
Marina Plezegetovstageskaya and Sascha Altschmerz: Maxfield Haynes
Nadia Doumiafeyva and Kravlji Snepek: Philip Martin-Nielson
Holly Dey-Abroad and Bruno Backpfeifengesicht: Felix Molinero del Paso
Ludmila Beaulemova and Jens Witzelsucht: Trent Montgomery
Grunya Protazova and Marat Legupski: Salvador Sasot Sellart
Colette Adae and Timur Legupski: Jake Speakman
Eugenia Repelskii and Jacques d’Aniels: Joshua Thake
Maya Thickenthighya and Nicholas Khachafallenjar: Haojun Xie
Varvara Laptopova and Boris Dumbkopf: Takaomi Yoshino
Artistic Director: Tory Dobrin
Associate Director/Production Manager: Isabel Martinez Rivera
Managing Director: Liz Harler
Ballet Master: Raffaele Morra
Associate Production Manager: Shelby Sonnenberg
Lighting Supervisor: Erika Johnson
Production Assistant: Giovanni Ravelo
Wardrobe Supervisor: Nicole Valencia-Gann
Education Manager: Roy Fialkow
Fundraising Consultant: LG Capital for Culture
Costume Designers: Ken Busbin, Jeffrey Sturdivant
Stylistic Guru: Marius Petipa
Orthopedic Consultant: Dr. David S. Weiss
Photographer: Zoran Jelenics
Birthplace: Charleston, S.C. Training: Robert Ivey Ballet School, Joffrey Ballet School. Joined Trockadero: November 1995. Previous companies: Florence Civic Ballet, Dance Theater of Harlem Ensemble, Bay Ballet Theater.
Birthplace: Lausanne, Switzerland. Training: Vevey Youth Ballet School, Association pour la Formation des Jeunes Danseurs, Kirov Academy of Ballet of Washington D.C., Ballettschule Theater Basel, Miami City Ballet School, San Francisco Ballet School. Joined Trockadero: June 2019. Previous Company: Los Angeles Ballet.
Birthplace: Gran Canaria, Spain. Training: Centro Coreografico de Las Palmas Trini Borrull, Conservatory of Dance Carmen Amaya. Joined Trockadero: August 2017. Previous companies: Ballet Jose Manuel Armas, Lifedanscenter, Peridance Contemporary Dance Company.
Birthplace: Noci, Italy. Training: Ballett-Akademie Munich (GE), La Scala Opera Ballet School Milan (IT). Joined Trockadero: October 2013. Rejoined: August 2021. Previous companies: DeMa Dance Company, Peridance Contemporary Dance Company, FJK Dance, Eglevsky Ballet.
Birthplace: Holguin, Cuba. Training: Camaguey Academy of Ballet, Habana National School of Ballet Provincial Ballet School, Holguin, Cuba. Joined Trockadero: May 2019. Previous companies: Holguin Chamber Ballet, Ecuadorian Chamber Ballet, Municipal Ballet of Lima, Peru.
Birthplace: Chicago. Training: University of Akron, Ailey School. Joined Trockadero: September 2013. Previous companies: Jennifer Muller/The Works, Brooklyn Ballet, The Love Show.
Birthplace: Louisville, KY. Training: NYU, San Francisco Ballet School, Louisville Ballet School. Joined Trockadero: September 2017. Rejoined: August 2021. Other Companies: Complexions Contemporary Ballet, Ballez.
Birthplace: Middletown, N.Y. Training: Natasha Bar, School of American Ballet, Chautauqua Institution of Dance. Joined Trockadero: September 2012. Previous company: North Carolina Dance Theater.
Birthplace: Granada, Spain. Training: Hochschule fur Darstellende kunst Frankfurt am Main. Joined Trockadero: August 2019
Birthplace: McGehee, Ariz. Training: Arkansas Academy of Dance, University of Arkansas at Little Rock, Accademiá dell’Arte, Florida State University. Joined Trockadero: August 2021. Previous companies; Arkansas Festival Ballet, Tallahassee Ballet.
Birthplace: Lleida, Spain. Training: Real Conservatorio Profesional de Danza de Madrid Mariemma. Escuela de Ballet Camina Ocaña and Pablo Savoye. Joined Trockadero: August 2019. Previous company: Severočeske Divadlo Opera a Balet.
Birthplace: Philadelphia, Pa. Training: Marymount Manhattan College Joined Trockadero: November 2021. Previous companies: New York Dance Project, New York Theater Ballet.
Birthplace: Providence, R.I. Training: Boston Ballet School, San Francisco Ballet School, Brae Crest School of Classical Ballet. Joined Trockadero: November 2011. Previous company: Man Dance Company of San Francisco.
Birthplace: Xi’an, Shaanxi, China. Training: Beijing Dance Academy, Joffrey Ballet School. Joined Trockadero: Augus, 2018. Prevous company: Columbia Classical Ballet Company.
Birthplace: Osaka, Japan. Training: Vaganova Ballet Acaemy, Ellison Ballet. Joined Trockadero: August 2018. Previous company: Atlantic City Ballet.Program subject to change without notice.
Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, Inc. is a nonprofit dance company chartered by the State of New York. Martha Cooper, president; Jenny Palmer, vice president; Tony Dobrin, secretary/treasurer.
James C.P. Berry, Amy Minter
All contributions are tax-deductible as provided as law.
trockadero.org
facebook.com/thetrocks
Instagram: @lesballetstrockadero
Twitter: @The_Trocks
Special Thanks to Our Major Institutional Supporters:
The Howard Gilman Foundation
Mertz Gilmore Foundation
The Max and Victoria Dreyfus foundation
Rallis Foundation
Shubert Foundation
This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Thanks to our local and state cultural funding agencies for their contributions to our work in New York with support, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council; the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature; The Harkness Foundation for Dance; and the NYU Community Fund.
Thanks to our Board of Directors and individual supporters for their generous contributions that make our nonprofit mission possible.
Makeup Provided By
MAC Cosmetics
Nikolay
The official Pointe Shoe Provider of Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo
Music for Swan Lake is conducted by Pierre Michel Durand with the Czech Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra, Pavel Prantl, Leader
Booking Inquiries:
Liz Harler
Managing Director
liz@trockadero.org
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