Ballet Legend Tory Dobrin of the Trocks

Dance critic Ismene Brown interviews Trocks artistic director Tory Dobrin, about his 40+ years with the legendary male ballerina comedy troupe, Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo. Topics include Tory's early years in LA, the Trocks' birth in the US Aids crisis, male pointe work, drag styles, 19th-century Russian ballet, diva legends, Japanese kabuki, the reluctance of choreographers to be parodied by the Trocks, gender politics, and happening to be in Britain immediately after the deaths of Princess Diana and the Queen. One of a series of interviews filmed at the Vyne Arts Centre and Dance Academy, Berkhamsted.

Chapters:
00:00 Start. Performing in the week of The Queen's death.
02:14 Clip from Trocks documentary ("What it takes to be a ballerina in drag", prod Emma Fierberg, Insider 2018).
04:03 Tory's start in dance in LA - classical - Broadway - the Trocks. Inspired by cable channels of classic Soviet ballet.
10:26 Muses: Pavlova in The Dying Swan, vintage Bolshoi, “Ballerina Monday”.
16:45 Pointework for men. Why men join the Trocks: "We encourage free spirits."
20:45 "I went to the ballet and I wanted to see a tutu!"
22:37 Clip from Trocks documentary (Fierberg)
25:30 Different traditions of drag - Dame Edna - Charles Ludlam - kabuki.
29:33 Telling jokes - originating Trocks' names.
32:10 Clip of Roberto Lara rehearsing Esmeralda solo (Roberto Lara’s YouTube, 2012)
35:15 We as dancers are ballet nerds, but our motivation is to entertain."
36:18 Clip of Ida Nevasayneva and Nadia Rambova in Paquita variations (Trockadero site)
39:39 Crossing lines in gender politics - opera “trouser roles” - Trock v Trock controversy.
44:50 Trocks in Middle East, Trocks in Russia
46:48 Relations with choreographers: "We've been turned down by a number of choreographers and foundations" - Tudor - Ashton - Cunningham and “improvised” music.
51:14 Trocks and Tory's leadership - near collapse - AIDS and conservative turn in US - rescued by wacky Japanese public.
55:08 The "boisterous" UK audience - 11th-hour pointe shoe crisis.

Related link:
Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo video page https://trockadero.org/gallery/videos/