Ahead of the return of the much-loved comedy ballet company to Norwich Theatre Royal on 5 & 6 June Diane Parkes sat down for a quickfire chat with artistic director Tory Dobrin.
The Trocks have recently celebrated their 50th anniversary, what changes have you noticed over the years?
Society has changed a lot since the company was formed in 1974 and even since I joined as a dancer in 1980. But our mission hasn’t changed: we still try to do the best possible show. We attract bigger audiences now we’re better known, and probably more diverse ones. The biggest change is that now we have children in the audience. People always came because they knew it was going to be a fun evening. Now they’re also saying: ‘why don’t we bring our children, our grandparents, our LGBTQ+ friends, our local dance people who will enjoy it?’ There are so many things about the company that people love.
In your opinion, what makes a really good show?
For us, a really enjoyable show has variety. We have different lead dancers in every ballet and every act. [In Norwich, the company are presenting a mixed bill of Swan Lake, Go For Barocco, The Dying Swan, Walpurgisnacht and a surprise Pas de Deux). Then we look for an array of colours in the costumes and an array of music so one is not seeing or hearing the same thing all night long. After that, we look at what we’ve done before. We’ve been to the UK and Ireland quite a few times and we know, for example, that everyone loves Swan Lake. We always have a new cast member doing it, so the humour is always different. We always bring ballets that the audience might know as well as something new.
The USP of the Trocks is that the all-male company take on both male and female roles, can you say a bit more about that?
What we do requires a lot of effort and skill. Our approach is that one takes one’s personality and then applies it to the role as it is supposed to be in terms of the style of the original ballet. We are not trying to dance as women because we’re not women. In fact, most women dancers don’t dance alike either, they are all individuals. You take your personality as a male person and you apply it to the roles you do.
What do you want audiences to come away from a Trocks show feeling?
The most important element for us is that the audience enjoy themselves, this is absolutely paramount to us. We wish for audience members to come in expecting to laugh and walk out with a great appreciation of the technical prowess of the company’s fabulous dancers because they are all highly trained and very accomplished.
What are you most looking forward to about being back in the UK?
The audiences in the UK are super fun – I think that is the tradition of the music hall and pantomime. It is fun for the audience but also for us. It’s like if you’re at a party and you’re telling a good joke and everyone is laughing. A lot of the dancers have been with us for a while and have become familiar with the UK. We visited Norwich for the first time on our 2022 tour and we’re really looking forward to discovering more of such a beautiful historic city.
Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo are at Norwich Theatre Royal presented by Dance Consortium on Friday 5 & Saturday 6 June at 7.30pm.
For more information, please call the Box Office on 01603 630 000 or visit norwichtheatre.org.
