Les Ballets De Trockodero

This weekend, Jack bought tickets for us to see Les Ballets de Trockadero de Monte Carlo at Meany Hall at UW. The company is an all-male comic ballet. All of the dancers are professionally trained, and they each have a fake male and female persona. All of the men learn to dance en pointe, which is unheard of in professional dance. While women dancers dance en pointe, they have been dancing in toe shoes since they were ten or twelve. These men had to learn after their dance training. One of the dancers from the Pacific Northwest Ballet used to dance there. I want to ask him how he liked Trockadero and was it hard to learn at a relatively late stage in his career.

The first act as a spoof of Swan Lake. Men with hairy chests and drag queen make-up wear white tutus and dance en pointe. These guys camp around the stage to Tchaikovsky. As the evening progressed, the program became more serious. There were still jokes and gags, like an extra dancer on the stage sat eating an apple while watching the pas de Deux.

After the Swan Lake satire, they tackled some other major ballets with lead prima ballerina roles. One guy was Esmerelda a version of the Hunchback of Notre Dame and the other was Kitri from Don Quixote. At times, I forgot these were men on stage. They were amazing.

The whole ballet was provacative and at times I was confused. First, I didn't have a problem with men taking on women's roles. I am supportive of the rights of the transgendered. What it begged in my mind was the whole question of gender equity. Why did I think it was so great than a man could do what a woman could do? For centuries, men have been upstaging women left and right. Why are they taking one of hte few things in the world where women are on equal footing, or even are better? Why, men, why? Maybe I wouldn't be so bitter if we had a woman president, more women in congress, more women in leadership positions everywhere.

I asked Jack about it. I want to be happy for these guys. I really do.

"Maybe the whole idea is to turn all gender norms on their heads," he said. "Maybe men can be prima ballerinas and women can do men things."

Maybe, but then why wasn't I watching a women's rugby team, or an all female contruction crew?

I can't be mad at these guys, though, and throw rocks at them and call them anti-feminist. These are men in tutus and blue eyeshadow, for pete's sake. What could make a man more vulnerable than dressing up as not only a chick, but a learning all of the chick dance moves? Any guy can put on a skirt. It takes some real cojones to spend years learning how to dance en pointe when no other men do. But why don't men learn pointe? What's the reason not to? Because women do? That is kind of bullshit, too. Is pointe women's work? Maybe then women's work will become less genderized and just become work. Where does it say that men can't raise kids, do laundry and cook a fabluous meal? No place.

I am still confused, but I welcome it. There are times when we need more discussion and debate, more conversations that are filled with gray than absolutes. How often do we get that, and how refreshing to find it from men in tights with false eyelashes.