Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, Touring

Immaculate mistiming, perfect pratfalls - a love letter to the golden age of ballet

by Ismene BrownFriday, 25 March 2011

It's all about the ballerinas: Raymonda soloists (from left) Fernando Medina, Paul Ghiselin, Raffaele Morra and Robert Carter© Sascha Vaughan

Les Grands Ballets Classiques de Stoke Poges are a company waiting to happen for most of us, but for Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo a bitter rivalry must be endured - one of their ballerinas didn’t show up last night in High Wycombe, due to winging on a last-minute errand of mercy to the Stoke Poges mob. Fortunately Ida Nevaseyneva was available to totter in with her eternally moulting Dying Swan - and all suddenly became right with the world. The Trocks are an errand of mercy, to anyone who loves old ballet, anyone who loves smart comedy.

The pratfalls of slapstick movies were no more split-second in synchronicity than the splats and tantrums in the Trocks’ oeuvre

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