WEBVTT

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[music]

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The calm before the storm.

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[music]

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[music]

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I have 10 minutes and I have to put my shoes on.
Are you gonna be okay? Is he gonna be okay? Yeah.

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[music]

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This is art. It’s art.

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This is five minutes to places.
This is five minutes

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until the top of the show.
This is five minutes.

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[music]

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[music]

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TO me, a ballerino isn’t the hardest and
it’s not about how high you can get the leg,

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or how many turns you can do, or
how long you can hold the balance.

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It’s about, if you can walk on stage and from
the moment that you enter until you leave,

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you capture everybody with
whatever your personality is.

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[music]

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I’m a ballerino, prima ballerino.

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[music]

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They are dancers who can go up on point

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and then use their masculinity
to also say something

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about femininity.

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[music]

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I like to do pretty makeup

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’cause I might (inaudible) feel like the audience like,
they’ll look at me and maybe they figure the critic

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and maybe they buy into it for a second

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and just when they do that (inaudible)
just throw it out (inaudible).

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[music]

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It’s been so carefully rehearsed

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and umm… taken apart and put back together.
So the ballet is one thing

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and then there’s everything on top of that
which is the humor or their take on it.

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[music]

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It’s such a… an incredible ballets

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between high art and… and clever camp.

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Just real talent. It’s, I
mean, when I watch them,

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I… I just don’t understand how
they do it and they do it so well.

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So I don’t know. I guess I’m just a fan.

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[music]

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[music]

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It’s your fault. All right. All right.
I know it’s a bit, it’s a lot of fun.

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Ballet Trockadero to Monte-Carlo, it’s
an all male comedy ballet company.

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Classical ballet companies, you know,
they have a specific look that they that…

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that is, that is more or less dictated by history and
what came before. And the uniformity is one of it

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but we’re trying to achieve uh… the
diversity that has been missing.

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[music]

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Frequently, the guys who came into this
company had not been treated easily

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in the ballet world. I mean, they
were frequently out there gay guys.

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There is a part of them that wanted
to dance in a dress doing point work,

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doing something unusual. Usually, when
you’re that kind of character which we want

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and you know, promote, usually, you get a lot of flak from
society and usually, when you’re getting flak from society,

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you come with a lot of walls and, or
baggage and so the important thing

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to do is to create a safe environment for these
guys to work and to feel comfortable and…

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Yes, very lovely. Okay, let me see the 18
year old go with him and we could pair.

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The oldest one in the cord with the
youngest one in the cord, okay?

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Oh, it’s beautiful. There,
that’s what we’re looking for

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and that’s what we’re going to see. Thank you.
See, it’s the, it’s the one’s with experience

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that know how to do it. Okay.
Mine from Trockadero.

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As far as I remember,
I’ve always loved ballet.

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A lot of teachers try to put
the secret between the wheels

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saying all about is of, is, a boy he
should do martial arts, or a soccer,

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or other kind of sports and
my mother said, \"Why?\"

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As simple as that, why? Why would you have to
force him to do something he doesn’t like?

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It means a lot because I can
understand that it wasn’t granted.

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So when I was 11, I finally
made it to the ballet school

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in Fasano and I started there.
And just like anything is,

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my father said, \"Okay, let’s try
and then let’s see how it goes.\"

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[music]

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And they say exactly the same
sort of when I joined the trucks.

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I came here and I said, \"Okay, let’s try for a, maybe a
month or a couple of months.\" Yeah, it’s been 15 years

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and I’m still here. That’s
how… how determined I am.

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[sil.]

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Guys, please answer me. Tristen? Yeah.

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That wasn’t Tristen. Thank you. Jase? Yeah.

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I’ve just joined a company so, I’ve been
just to UK and Spain and all over US

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which is a travel for me I guess. I’ve never
been there. We’ve also been to Australia.

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France. China, France, Italy.

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No I… I haven’t been there. You… you
didn’t come. I didn’t come. Um-hmm.

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Yeah, many, many places. But always
on the move. Kind of gypsies.

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[sil.]

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Can you bring more balance there?

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When I dance, I always

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remember my mum. She was a

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prima ballerina in Cuba. So I think, it was

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the way that I… I came to the dance world.

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For me, it was very like

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easy to understand what…
what was happening because

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I always when ever my mom, you
know, do rehearsals and I saw her

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like teaching every day so,

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I mean, she trains me when I was there.
So I kinda dance like her.

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[music]

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I love dance.

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I put in my heart on stage.
I put in like my,

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is, my soul is dancing. It’s not just me.

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No… no… no… no way

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or neither much. Oh, no. Not
even, not even the audience. I…

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I see when I’m on stage. It’s me.
Hi, I got it every time I go to…

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That’s show guys, thank you, Charles. Thank you, Joe.
Thank you, sir. Thank you, sir. You’re having fun? Yes.

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Yes. Thank you. Being a male ballet dancer

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in a traditional, very
traditional company, you know,

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I dance, I play the prince who look,
is in love with the princes, you know,

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every role, every single
role I am playing counter

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to my nature. So that uh…
it’s tiring sometimes

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but it’s also very challenging and you know, every once in
a while I get to dance with a dude and that’s super hot.

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Sort of amazing, right?
I said, it was amazing.

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I’ve spent my entire adult
life in trockadero.

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So I was very, very lonely. I never
had an opportunity to sort of meet

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somebody and… and then date.

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Well, a lot of times in the gay world
like, 15 years ago when I came out,

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it was a hard thing, you know,
and gay people had gay,

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lesbian, transgender, all these
groups of sort of minority outcast

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from society people. We had to choose
our own family and that’s sort of a,

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you know, an intricate arrow that
we’ve done like we are a family.

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That’s what the rooms with their
friends and oh, he want he…

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We’re all so different.
We’re so international.

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We’re all from different backgrounds.

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But the audience senses that. They know we’re a
team. They know we like each other because it…

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it shoots out. Good energy shoots out.

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So when that curtain goes
up, it’s just electric.

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[music]

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[sil.]

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The creation of the company coincided
with the, you know, big gay movement

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that took place in the ‘70s. Umm… and
around the time Stonewall riots and…

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and you know, the big push for

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the gay community enlarged to kind of
say, \"Okay, we are here and we want to

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establish our place in society
without being swept under the mat.\"

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Or that’s kind of like, you know, as long as we
don’t talk about it, maybe, it’s not their kind of

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mentality but she’s been psychology for a lot
of people and sometimes to listen fortunately.

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Well, here we are

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on 14th Street in 9th avenue and the
building behind me, the red brick building

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was the side of the first performance
of ballet trockadero in 1974.

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It was a loft that was run by
the, well, say a discussion group

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uh… which was a gay affiliated discussion group.
And it was run by a man named Eugene McDougal

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and he rented this space to three guys who wanted
to put on a show in a good American tradition.

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And the show was very successful
and Eugene McDougal there said,

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\"Hey, this is a great idea, a great show.\" And
he propelled it into the professional realm.

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For a lot of people,

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a drag act felt uncomfortable, subversive.

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They might secretly be attracted to it but they wouldn’t
necessarily want their neighbors to know they were going.

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And that total loosened up and got juicer

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and people became much more open about it.

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So therefore, part of the original
trucks joke shape shifted.

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To understand where we’re going, we must
first the back on where we’ve been.

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Our society is very rich
in its artistic heritage.

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Recently, this group of young
men here from probably the most

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unusual ballet company in history of the
dance which are but caused a coronary arrest

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in the very heart of our
cultural establishment.

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Up until then, you see what they do on stage so
brilliantly would not only have been unlikely

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but probably legal. And in these 13 states,

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I am honored by their invitation
to join them as we present

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the notorious ballet Trockadero de
Monte Carlo and take it from me,

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you have just got to see these guys dance.

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[music]

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It’s not a gay company per say
‘cause we don’t address gay issues.

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If you want to make it from a political
sense but it is, if there is,

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you know, tons of gay sensibility and because of the use of drag
and we’re all gays, you know, so the two of those things combined

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so and we have toured everywhere.

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In our own way,

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we exposed millions of
people to a gay sensibility

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and we did it with a lot of talent
and with a lot of good cheer.

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[music]

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Yeah, we have definitely made contributions

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to opening up society, to things that are a little
bit different than the straight and narrow.

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[music]

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In the early years, there we’re,
the company was blackballed

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by funding sources. Obviously, because
of the gay element, the drag element

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and uh… we always had to pay attention
to what the audience was doing.

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We always had to be sure that we were invited
back in a few years to the same theaters.

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And we had to be sure that the infrastructure
was very low. Keep going in good times

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and bad times and that really
has saved the company.

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[music]

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We are in Tory Dobrin’s apartment

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and a pretty sided New York City.

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This is the auxiliary office right here.
This is basement, it’s the head office.

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Where it all comes together. Here’s
the program from the Palace Theater

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on Broadway. This is really where they felt that they
had made big time because they put it on Broadway

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for a week and then here was a poster
that we found in a storage unit on,

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actually, this might be from the very first. That’s the first. Yeah,
that’s the very first. Oh, my God. It’s the first performance.

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That’s amazing. Look, Westside Center,

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West 14th Street, 2nd floor. We were
just there. That’s really exciting.

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These are photos of some very

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early performances from the ‘70s.

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Uh… this is one of my favorites. Umm… this
is me and my Gonzalez in Banquet probably.

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The thing about the trockadero was always,
should we have, umm… should there be jokes,

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or should there be no jokes? Should,
with the seriousness of the performance

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be funny enough, or do you actually wanna
have uh… jokes inside the choreography?

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And that’s always been the pull in
both directions from the company.

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So Umm… and I think my contribution
is to say when I have both.

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[music]

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Tori is like a father figure.
He tells the guys all the time,

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fantastics saying a little
mantra if you will that is,

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\"You don’t have to fit in but you
have to be able to function.\"

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What better banner to live your life by?
You can still do whatever you want

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but please be able to function within the group, the
group that we’re here. That way we can all be dynamic

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and diverse and can still make
this on there something happened.

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[music]

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Ever since I joined the
company, he has taken time

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to invest in me personally as a
person on my personal journey.

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And advise me along the way because
I think in any other situation

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with my rebel personality, with my
stubbornness, with a lot of personal issues

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that I had coming into the company, I doubt any other
director would have been as patient with me as he was.

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[music]

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No. And then you just twist it…

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[sil.]

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Well, I always knew that I was different. You know,
because I was really terribly made fun of at school.

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Like, my mom was amazing because
she wanted to shelter me

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and she put me in a dance school
where I wasn’t made fun of.

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My mom was not gonna let anybody hurt me.
Like, it’s actually pretty funny,

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I woke her up in the middle of the night and I was like, \"Mom,
I have to tell you something. I’m gay.\" And she’s like,

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\"You woke me up for this?\"

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I wanted the drama I think.

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I wanted her to be like, \"Oh, my God. You’re gay son?\" No. It wasn’t like
that. She said, \"You woke me up for this? I have to work in the morning.\"

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Seriously, like, I’ve known forever
like go back to bed, I don’t care.

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[music]

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Tori’s played a big role in my life.

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It’s an example. I’ve been encouraged to be

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the artist that I want to be, you know,

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when I joined the company
in ‘95, I was young,

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I was just happy to be there.
You know, it’s like,

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\"Wow! I’m actually here.\"

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My love affair with the company
goes back to my childhood.

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[music]

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I begged off my first pair
of point shoes that I kept,

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you know, totally whipped out in secrecy in
the empty studio for fear of being caught.

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Because at that time, it really
wasn’t a popular idea to allow boys,

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you know, to dance on point or to push them
to do so. You know, it’s considered sisifying

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and all this kind of stuff. I’ll
never forget calling my mom

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the day that Tori had given
me my first contract.

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He said, \"Are you sitting down?\" ‘Yeah, I’m fine.\" She was kind of
getting impatient. \"What is it? Say what you got to say, I’m busy.

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You know, I said, \"Well, I got
a job.\" \"Oh, really? Where?\"

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She said, she started listing all, you
know, \"Well, it’s a (inaudible). I’m like,

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\"Mom, be realistic, I’m a
shorty.\" So uh… well, I said,

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\"Mom, I’m going to be dancing for ballet
trocadero.\" There was a little bit of silence.

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I said, \"Mom?\" \"Oh, well, if
you’re happy, I’m… I’m okay.\"

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I’d rather like it here in a country.
And I’m always like,

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when Bobby comes home because this gives
him nice wide open space and silence

00:23:10.000 --> 00:23:14.999
from the 24 hour then of
noise in your city. Yeah.

00:23:15.000 --> 00:23:19.999
[music]

00:23:20.000 --> 00:23:24.999
I grew up in the country of state South
Carolina. Not in fact, picking cotton,

00:23:25.000 --> 00:23:29.999
but one thing I learned from that, well, that ain’t,
won’t make my living, picking cotton. I come along

00:23:30.000 --> 00:23:34.999
and I have the son and now, all
of the things I wished for,

00:23:35.000 --> 00:23:39.999
that’s what he does. So all of these
things and I look back how sometime

00:23:40.000 --> 00:23:44.999
your desire, it’s not
necessarily meant for you

00:23:45.000 --> 00:23:49.999
but for future generation.

00:23:50.000 --> 00:23:54.999
[music]

00:23:55.000 --> 00:23:59.999
I hate my son.

00:24:00.000 --> 00:24:04.999
I panic word little girl, because I’ve produced
a rough land and freeing up my daughter

00:24:05.000 --> 00:24:09.999
but then I guess, I guess by
default I got lot of the feminist…

00:24:10.000 --> 00:24:14.999
The lady. And of course, his dad,

00:24:15.000 --> 00:24:19.999
uh… (inaudible) he just thought
it was not a very good thing

00:24:20.000 --> 00:24:24.999
that a boy could make a living dancing.
Because this is the longest time,

00:24:25.000 --> 00:24:29.999
the biggest question was, \"When
you’re gonna get a real job?\"

00:24:30.000 --> 00:24:34.999
You know, he has to live a decent life.
Well, not but

00:24:35.000 --> 00:24:39.999
his job, it, well, now the things
that changed is being more

00:24:40.000 --> 00:24:44.999
open minded now. Because a lot
of times when (inaudible)

00:24:45.000 --> 00:24:49.999
when he was going up, it was not,
he was not hardly stepped in.

00:24:50.000 --> 00:24:54.999
The big deciding factor that proved
to them both that I was settled

00:24:55.000 --> 00:24:59.999
in the right kind of environment
was when I saved up the money

00:25:00.000 --> 00:25:04.999
to bring them to New York for one of my first
couple of years when we started dancing

00:25:05.000 --> 00:25:09.999
at the Joyce year. Umm…
I saved up the money,

00:25:10.000 --> 00:25:14.999
I paid for the round trip tickets. They stayed in my beautiful
apartment. Down by that, first time I flew in a plane.

00:25:15.000 --> 00:25:19.999
That was a gift to myself as
well as to him to prove that

00:25:20.000 --> 00:25:24.999
I was doing, you know, I think
it was a more proud moment

00:25:25.000 --> 00:25:29.999
for me and still is as it was

00:25:30.000 --> 00:25:34.999
when I got the job and I made the
phone call to her to tell her.

00:25:35.000 --> 00:25:40.000
[music]

00:25:45.000 --> 00:25:53.000
[music]

00:25:55.000 --> 00:25:59.999
We like to have gas companies in our
season. They are ray of sunshine

00:26:00.000 --> 00:26:04.999
in the middle of winter and winter in Alberta
is long and so January is a perfect time

00:26:05.000 --> 00:26:09.999
for us to have a lift and a laugh.

00:26:10.000 --> 00:26:14.999
Hello, we made it. be very, very careful.

00:26:15.000 --> 00:26:20.000
Here with those… I’m gonna fall.
I’m gonna fall.

00:26:25.000 --> 00:26:29.999
The trock’s greatest contribution to dance

00:26:30.000 --> 00:26:34.999
has been that we are able to open up

00:26:35.000 --> 00:26:39.999
the world of ballet to

00:26:40.000 --> 00:26:44.999
I think a much wider audience than
would… would line up to buy a ticket to,

00:26:45.000 --> 00:26:49.999
you know what, a standard ballet performance
because umm… they’re the intimidation factor

00:26:50.000 --> 00:26:54.999
is down. That’s how
people get in the theater

00:26:55.000 --> 00:26:59.999
with us that they’re like, \"Well, I don’t have
to understand it because I can laugh at it.\"

00:27:00.000 --> 00:27:04.999
Huh!

00:27:05.000 --> 00:27:09.999
I love the sound of audience.
I love the sound of applauds.

00:27:10.000 --> 00:27:14.999
I live for the applauds,
applauds, applauds.

00:27:15.000 --> 00:27:19.999
I’ve been in this company for such a long
time that now I’m calm and controlled.

00:27:20.000 --> 00:27:24.999
That screen will make me so nervous because
you can see how many people are there

00:27:25.000 --> 00:27:29.999
and it’s like a big house that is all
sold out. It’s a very hard thing.

00:27:30.000 --> 00:27:34.999
You know, the ballet
Trockadero de Monte Carlo

00:27:35.000 --> 00:27:39.999
is kind of playing almost to all the
ballet russe companies that came before.

00:27:40.000 --> 00:27:48.000
[music]

00:27:55.000 --> 00:27:59.999
When they first were started
in 1974, they put on the word,

00:28:00.000 --> 00:28:04.999
\"de Monte Carlo\" and not much to the Ballet
Russe do Monte Carlo. Then they had the idea

00:28:05.000 --> 00:28:09.999
to change all their names so the dancers in the
company, they don’t dance under their real name,

00:28:10.000 --> 00:28:14.999
they dance under either Never Say
Never, or Nadia, do me a favor,

00:28:15.000 --> 00:28:19.999
or Eugenia Repelskii, you know, so
that’s a lot where the humor comes.

00:28:20.000 --> 00:28:24.999
We play with that old conventional
touring, maybe broken down,

00:28:25.000 --> 00:28:29.999
dusty ballet companies of a Russian nature
that actually don’t really exist anymore.

00:28:30.000 --> 00:28:34.999
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.
In accordance

00:28:35.000 --> 00:28:39.999
with the greatest tradition of the
Russian Ballet, there will be changes

00:28:40.000 --> 00:28:44.999
in this evening’s program.

00:28:45.000 --> 00:28:49.999
(inaudible) could be replaced

00:28:50.000 --> 00:28:54.999
by (inaudible). Very great
to announce the absence

00:28:55.000 --> 00:28:59.999
in this evening’s program
of Natasha, not good enough

00:29:00.000 --> 00:29:04.999
and finally, it is a great
pleasure for me to announce

00:29:05.000 --> 00:29:09.999
that all of our ballerinas are in
very, very good mood this evening.

00:29:10.000 --> 00:29:14.999
[music]

00:29:15.000 --> 00:29:19.999
There’s still this I think within
the arts a kind of class to fight

00:29:20.000 --> 00:29:24.999
and a class mentality. Ballet is
still seen as an elite art form.

00:29:25.000 --> 00:29:33.000
[music]

00:29:35.000 --> 00:29:39.999
And then of course, you
know, when they realize

00:29:40.000 --> 00:29:44.999
that they can laugh at swans falling over.

00:29:45.000 --> 00:29:49.999
And that’s a permission

00:29:50.000 --> 00:29:54.999
that doesn’t really come your
way very often in the theatre.

00:29:55.000 --> 00:30:03.000
[music]

00:30:05.000 --> 00:30:09.999
It really resonates with me as a

00:30:10.000 --> 00:30:14.999
professional ballet dancer as well as
just an audience member because I can…

00:30:15.000 --> 00:30:19.999
I can tell what exactly the joke is.
One of the…

00:30:20.000 --> 00:30:24.999
the corresponds shoves, one
of the other corresponds down

00:30:25.000 --> 00:30:29.999
and falls to the ground, sort of
gives her the stink eye, you know,

00:30:30.000 --> 00:30:34.999
and it’s such a inside joke for, you know,

00:30:35.000 --> 00:30:39.999
anybody who’s ever been in a ballet company because sometimes
you get an elbow, you know, gotta move over. It’s very real.

00:30:40.000 --> 00:30:48.000
[sil.]

00:31:00.000 --> 00:31:04.999
The trockaderos are about rhythm and timing
and at knowing how long to stretch a pause

00:31:05.000 --> 00:31:09.999
or tighten something up or speed it up.

00:31:10.000 --> 00:31:18.000
[music]

00:31:20.000 --> 00:31:24.999
It’s not just the men playing
women that I love, I love the men

00:31:25.000 --> 00:31:29.999
playing men. I love when they’re
doing that over the top prince.

00:31:30.000 --> 00:31:34.999
It’s… it’s delightful.

00:31:35.000 --> 00:31:43.000
[music]

00:31:50.000 --> 00:31:54.999
As they say, if you’re able to joke

00:31:55.000 --> 00:31:59.999
in the foreign language means that
you have a good grasp of that.

00:32:00.000 --> 00:32:04.999
Same goes for ballet.

00:32:05.000 --> 00:32:09.999
One of the things

00:32:10.000 --> 00:32:14.999
I’ve been working with
trockadero is how to show

00:32:15.000 --> 00:32:19.999
the spirit of the piece. How to show

00:32:20.000 --> 00:32:24.999
what is interesting such that
audience would understand

00:32:25.000 --> 00:32:29.999
what they’re making fun of.

00:32:30.000 --> 00:32:34.999
Of course, we use a lot of comedy
tools but one of the tools

00:32:35.000 --> 00:32:39.999
we use is amplifying. You know,

00:32:40.000 --> 00:32:44.999
even the choreography, they say

00:32:45.000 --> 00:32:49.999
in (inaudible), the position is like this.
Trockadero was

00:32:50.000 --> 00:32:54.999
increasing with increase the pitch.

00:32:55.000 --> 00:32:59.999
You know, if in say flames
of Paris, variation,

00:33:00.000 --> 00:33:04.999
the preparation is like this,
trockadero would do this.

00:33:05.000 --> 00:33:09.999
But amplified, they’re doubly difficult.

00:33:10.000 --> 00:33:14.999
So the trocks must have a
very, very solid technique

00:33:15.000 --> 00:33:19.999
to be able to show it. You
know, to be able to joke

00:33:20.000 --> 00:33:24.999
within the choreography.

00:33:25.000 --> 00:33:33.000
[music]

00:33:40.000 --> 00:33:44.999
Lashes, off.

00:33:45.000 --> 00:33:49.999
Makeup, off. Yes, it’s the saddest part.

00:33:50.000 --> 00:33:54.999
The saddest part, to take off the makeup.

00:33:55.000 --> 00:34:03.000
[music]

00:34:20.000 --> 00:34:24.999
The suite is all yours. Thank you.

00:34:25.000 --> 00:34:29.999
I moved here six years ago.

00:34:30.000 --> 00:34:34.999
It was very hard because with my
mom, my sister and I all together,

00:34:35.000 --> 00:34:39.999
I never moved from my house because I
left Goa(ph) when I was 19 years old.

00:34:40.000 --> 00:34:44.999
So it was hard for us but,
you know, it was like…

00:34:45.000 --> 00:34:49.999
like a decision to, you know,
to help her in the future.

00:34:50.000 --> 00:34:58.000
[sil.]

00:35:05.000 --> 00:35:09.999
There you go. I did my… my… my whole school

00:35:10.000 --> 00:35:14.999
in Havana. I grow the way
when I was 18 years old

00:35:15.000 --> 00:35:19.999
in National Ballet School
and I always hear about,

00:35:20.000 --> 00:35:24.999
hear about trockadero in Cuba because
everyone knows the company there.

00:35:25.000 --> 00:35:29.999
So for me, it’s a sad dream like,

00:35:30.000 --> 00:35:34.999
you know, comes through because
I love to go on point shoes

00:35:35.000 --> 00:35:39.999
and I danced in Cuba, I
was the first male dancer

00:35:40.000 --> 00:35:44.999
to go on point shoes and
rely on stage in Cuba.

00:35:45.000 --> 00:35:49.999
There’re so many stories he told me

00:35:50.000 --> 00:35:54.999
umm… when he was young and
like how he… he was living in…

00:35:55.000 --> 00:35:59.999
in Cuba that I always like.
Think how lucky I was

00:36:00.000 --> 00:36:04.999
for having all that I got in my life
because in the ‘90s in Cuba, it was…

00:36:05.000 --> 00:36:09.999
there wasn’t any… any food any type of

00:36:10.000 --> 00:36:14.999
clothes to buy, you know, it was like
really, a really hard time for us.

00:36:15.000 --> 00:36:19.999
We have to get up and
go to school like water

00:36:20.000 --> 00:36:24.999
and sugar in and like a piece
of bread and that’s it.

00:36:25.000 --> 00:36:29.999
We didn’t have anything.

00:36:30.000 --> 00:36:34.999
I fight to get here, you know,
it’s more important that then

00:36:35.000 --> 00:36:39.999
what happened I think so but yeah,

00:36:40.000 --> 00:36:44.999
and I’m very happy to be here. Now I can have
my family and yeah, I can get my mom here.

00:36:45.000 --> 00:36:49.999
[sil.]

00:36:50.000 --> 00:36:54.999
There’s always been couples in the company

00:36:55.000 --> 00:36:59.999
and there always will be. I mean, I was
with a… my partner was with the company

00:37:00.000 --> 00:37:04.999
for 10 years and it was great.
You traveled around together.

00:37:05.000 --> 00:37:09.999
It was so much fun. You know, it
was like a holiday all the time.

00:37:10.000 --> 00:37:14.999
Because you were doing something you loved and you were
with the person you love. So what could be better?

00:37:15.000 --> 00:37:19.999
We’re the first umm… couple
that got actually married

00:37:20.000 --> 00:37:24.999
while we’re in the trockadero.
We’re all the same.

00:37:25.000 --> 00:37:29.999
We’re all the same. Yeah. But except
when we go to Italy, I… I… I don’t get

00:37:30.000 --> 00:37:34.999
to be married with my husband because
once we touch this Italy soil,

00:37:35.000 --> 00:37:39.999
we’re not married for them anymore.
It’s just crazy

00:37:40.000 --> 00:37:44.999
and I hope one day it’ll change,
hopefully soon but I don’t know. Yeah.

00:37:45.000 --> 00:37:49.999
That’s why I moved here because I wasn’t
recognized as a human being over there for what,

00:37:50.000 --> 00:37:54.999
like, I wasn’t recognized for who I am.

00:37:55.000 --> 00:37:59.999
We have people in the, in the company
that are married. So for them it’s easy.

00:38:00.000 --> 00:38:04.999
For other people, it’s not easy. Is not
easy to find and is not easy to keep.

00:38:05.000 --> 00:38:09.999
I’m always on tour.

00:38:10.000 --> 00:38:14.999
I would say, I spent 200
nights on the road,

00:38:15.000 --> 00:38:19.999
100 nights I’m home.

00:38:20.000 --> 00:38:28.000
But half of them, or even more of them, I need
to be with my parents. So I’m not here at all.

00:38:30.000 --> 00:38:34.999
Things are very difficult. My father has
been diagnosed of parkinson’s disease.

00:38:35.000 --> 00:38:39.999
He’s stuck in a wheelchair and he’s
losing the ability to move his,

00:38:40.000 --> 00:38:44.999
move his body and unfortunately,
that is going to attack

00:38:45.000 --> 00:38:49.999
also his inner organs and it’s
going to attack also his brain.

00:38:50.000 --> 00:38:54.999
So he’s stuck on a wheelchair. He’s not able to eat
by himself. He’s not able to do anything by himself

00:38:55.000 --> 00:38:59.999
and not all the time he has a, he has a
clear mind. So it’s not an easy situation

00:39:00.000 --> 00:39:04.999
and my mum is alone there about, for dad.

00:39:05.000 --> 00:39:09.999
I’m an only child. I don’t have any siblings
so I always look forward to go back to Fasano.

00:39:10.000 --> 00:39:18.000
[sil.]

00:39:25.000 --> 00:39:29.999
Where is the… the milk? Okay.

00:39:30.000 --> 00:39:34.999
Every time I come back from tour it’s been
like a whole day cleaning the house like…

00:39:35.000 --> 00:39:39.999
I hate it. hence, it is a perfect match.
I love cleaning.

00:39:40.000 --> 00:39:44.999
So when you make things from scratch, you don’t feel as guilty about
eating them, you know, because then you know what goes in to it.

00:39:45.000 --> 00:39:49.999
I mean, how can you be guilty
from like a little bit of flour

00:39:50.000 --> 00:39:54.999
and a little bit of sugar? I’m not gonna tell
away direct of the weighing(ph) of the sugar.

00:39:55.000 --> 00:39:59.999
Oh, my God. Well, he always says, he likes
his ballerinas beginning with so it’s…

00:40:00.000 --> 00:40:04.999
Okay, we’ll have double the service.

00:40:05.000 --> 00:40:09.999
Well, that’s a great thing about trockadero.
We have all shapes and sizes. You know,

00:40:10.000 --> 00:40:14.999
we have tiny people, we have tall people,

00:40:15.000 --> 00:40:19.999
we have muscular people, we have skinny
people. It’s like a melting pot. You know…

00:40:20.000 --> 00:40:24.999
Make sure that we do this. You know, I’m like one
of the people like, it’s like lifted and thrown

00:40:25.000 --> 00:40:29.999
and carried around so I sort
of have to make sure that

00:40:30.000 --> 00:40:34.999
my weight stays at a
reasonably light weight.

00:40:35.000 --> 00:40:39.999
A normal like healthy ballerinas
like 120, 125 pounds,

00:40:40.000 --> 00:40:44.999
maybe even less, maybe 115.
But we’re like 130, 140

00:40:45.000 --> 00:40:49.999
and that and… And the tall guys even more
you know. you know, so it’s a lot of left.

00:40:50.000 --> 00:40:58.000
[music]

00:41:00.000 --> 00:41:04.999
You’re gonna draw your tummy in. Good.

00:41:05.000 --> 00:41:09.999
Then, you’re going to straighten your knee.

00:41:10.000 --> 00:41:14.999
Good. And you’re gonna lift that leg up as high as you can
without it going into your back. That’s good, perfect.

00:41:15.000 --> 00:41:19.999
Now can you during your tummy in a bit
more? Keep your leg up, keep your leg up.

00:41:20.000 --> 00:41:24.999
That’s better. Good.

00:41:25.000 --> 00:41:29.999
I was just finishing a piece,
finishing through foot and variation

00:41:30.000 --> 00:41:34.999
and just felt a slight pull, twitch,
whatever you wanna call it.

00:41:35.000 --> 00:41:39.999
I knew something wasn’t right but
I’ve already had knee surgeries

00:41:40.000 --> 00:41:44.999
on both knees prior to this long
time ago so. (inaudible) a lot.

00:41:45.000 --> 00:41:49.999
It’s not unheard of for people to be

00:41:50.000 --> 00:41:54.999
dancing in the company for like the time that
I’ve been with the trocks. Most people retire

00:41:55.000 --> 00:41:59.999
at 40. It’s kind of the unspoken rule,

00:42:00.000 --> 00:42:04.999
or I don’t know if it’s out of vanity but
then you find some that just keep going

00:42:05.000 --> 00:42:09.999
and doesn’t matter and they’re look great.
I don’t know. I plan to be one of those

00:42:10.000 --> 00:42:14.999
that’s still around for a while. It’s not
always rainbows and roses as you see but

00:42:15.000 --> 00:42:19.999
umm… it’s a charmed
existence none the less.

00:42:20.000 --> 00:42:28.000
[music]

00:42:35.000 --> 00:42:39.999
We are very excited because we just put
up our new poster of the trockaderos.

00:42:40.000 --> 00:42:44.999
Yeah… The only dancers that
don’t gaynor mindins are just,

00:42:45.000 --> 00:42:49.999
we don’t make a big enough shoe.
Uh… we got about to a

00:42:50.000 --> 00:42:54.999
13 ½ umm… but sometimes
the issue with men’s feet

00:42:55.000 --> 00:42:59.999
is width umm… Yeah. Yeah.
That’s… that’s the problem.

00:43:00.000 --> 00:43:04.999
We spent many, I will say a couple
of years to actually understand

00:43:05.000 --> 00:43:09.999
the right size and the right width
and the right like height here

00:43:10.000 --> 00:43:14.999
so that it all fits and my
feet don’t look too sickle

00:43:15.000 --> 00:43:19.999
when I’m on point and right
now I think we’ve found them

00:43:20.000 --> 00:43:24.999
and I think they’re very good now. A
dancers feet are a little bit smaller.

00:43:25.000 --> 00:43:29.999
They haven’t been walking around and has, they
haven’t been dancing, their feet don’t swell.

00:43:30.000 --> 00:43:34.999
Also the trockadores travel so
much that we sometimes have to

00:43:35.000 --> 00:43:39.999
adjust the size to accommodate
airplanes. You know,

00:43:40.000 --> 00:43:44.999
by the time you get to Japan, you’re shoes
are too tight because your feet are swollen.

00:43:45.000 --> 00:43:50.000
[music]

00:43:55.000 --> 00:43:59.999
[music]

00:44:00.000 --> 00:44:04.999
I always referred to Japan.

00:44:05.000 --> 00:44:09.999
That’s kida like my home away from home.
My second home because we are considered

00:44:10.000 --> 00:44:14.999
somewhat like celebrities for those that know
us because we are so popular here. You know,

00:44:15.000 --> 00:44:19.999
I can walk down the street, if
they recognize me, they freak out.

00:44:20.000 --> 00:44:24.999
We have our… our facebook followers

00:44:25.000 --> 00:44:29.999
everywhere. Japan is… is it’s own annual.

00:44:30.000 --> 00:44:35.000
[sil.]

00:44:45.000 --> 00:44:49.999
And order of this evening,
(inaudible) variations

00:44:50.000 --> 00:44:54.999
will be Carlos Hopuy followed by Philippe,
Alberto, Boyce and Bobby as the lead.

00:44:55.000 --> 00:44:59.999
This is half hour, 30 minutes to places. Please, make
sure you check the cross over. It is very tight.

00:45:00.000 --> 00:45:04.999
Thank you.

00:45:05.000 --> 00:45:09.999
Trockadero is uh… very attractive
and great entertaining

00:45:10.000 --> 00:45:14.999
with qualified ballet technique
and the rich sense of humor,

00:45:15.000 --> 00:45:19.999
uh… charms of Japanese over decades.

00:45:20.000 --> 00:45:28.000
[sil.]

00:46:15.000 --> 00:46:23.000
[sil.]

00:46:25.000 --> 00:46:29.999
They really are very big in Japan. I mean,

00:46:30.000 --> 00:46:34.999
I sometimes think the Japanese are
going to hide all their passports

00:46:35.000 --> 00:46:39.999
and never let them ever, ever leave.

00:46:40.000 --> 00:46:44.999
[non-English narration]

00:46:45.000 --> 00:46:49.999
Everybody who has passed through trockadero

00:46:50.000 --> 00:46:54.999
has contributed to its success. And that’s what I
try to impart to the dancers a little bit without,

00:46:55.000 --> 00:46:59.999
you know, being this is old guy
telling him what it was like

00:47:00.000 --> 00:47:04.999
but, you know, just to know that
we have come from some place

00:47:05.000 --> 00:47:09.999
and we are going someplace and everyone between
those two points has contributed to our success

00:47:10.000 --> 00:47:14.999
and we need to honor them.
We were in Japan,

00:47:15.000 --> 00:47:19.999
would have been like ‘83 or ‘84,
and we were taking a picture

00:47:20.000 --> 00:47:24.999
with the really world renown
Japanese ballerina in Yoko Morishita

00:47:25.000 --> 00:47:29.999
and all of the dancers to
her left died from AIDS

00:47:30.000 --> 00:47:34.999
and the dancers on the right did not.

00:47:35.000 --> 00:47:39.999
And that was really spooky to see that.

00:47:40.000 --> 00:47:44.999
[music]

00:47:45.000 --> 00:47:49.999
The AIDS epidemic was really
uh… difficult for society.

00:47:50.000 --> 00:47:54.999
And it was horrible for the
company, umm… really horrible.

00:47:55.000 --> 00:47:59.999
So uh… it was horrible, you know, it is of,

00:48:00.000 --> 00:48:04.999
you know, people we loved were, you know, sick
and dying and then you were worried for yourself

00:48:05.000 --> 00:48:10.000
and you know, uh… it was bad.

00:48:15.000 --> 00:48:19.999
A lot of what the trocks represents

00:48:20.000 --> 00:48:24.999
was about consciousness raising.

00:48:25.000 --> 00:48:29.999
And I know that when they
dance and go for boroka(ph),

00:48:30.000 --> 00:48:34.999
if you look on the costumes,
the little red ribbons,

00:48:35.000 --> 00:48:39.999
they remember as should we.

00:48:40.000 --> 00:48:44.999
[music]

00:48:45.000 --> 00:48:49.999
I will say that one of the

00:48:50.000 --> 00:48:54.999
uh… things that did happen out
of that situation is that

00:48:55.000 --> 00:48:59.999
the company in a way became freer.
Uh… it kind it…

00:49:00.000 --> 00:49:04.999
it freed me out for sure
because uh… you realize that

00:49:05.000 --> 00:49:09.999
umm… you know, \"Hey everyone
is dying around you.

00:49:10.000 --> 00:49:14.999
Uh… just be free and you know, let go.\"

00:49:15.000 --> 00:49:19.999
You know, enjoy yourself. We’re all gonna
die anyway so, you know, now is important

00:49:20.000 --> 00:49:24.999
so the company actually got funnier
because we no longer had the self imposed

00:49:25.000 --> 00:49:29.999
restriction on ourselves.

00:49:30.000 --> 00:49:34.999
[music]

00:49:35.000 --> 00:49:39.999
And I actually think that in a way
it propelled the company forward

00:49:40.000 --> 00:49:44.999
and allowed us to develop or
expand to where we are now.

00:49:45.000 --> 00:49:49.999
[music]

00:49:50.000 --> 00:49:54.999
People have been really brave

00:49:55.000 --> 00:49:59.999
and they just helped us
to be able to live freely

00:50:00.000 --> 00:50:04.999
and to be able to… to be who we
want to be and love who we want to.

00:50:05.000 --> 00:50:09.999
I’m so grateful to these
people who have done this.

00:50:10.000 --> 00:50:15.000
[sil.]