The Joyce Master Class: Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo

Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 14
12:00  – 2:00 PM

FEE: $20

This master class and repertory workshop is taught by Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo’s Ballet Master Raffaele Morra.  Participants will be given a short barre and center work before learning excerpts of classical repertoire (as performed by the world’s great ballet companies) alongside the Trocks’ satirical version. This will be a great opportunity to explore for yourself how the Trocks parody the classical canon.

Raffaele Morra is Les Ballets Trockadero’s Ballet Master, teaching artist, and a dancer.  He began his studies in classical ballet in his hometown of Fossano Italy in 1986, becoming a member of the “Compagnia di Danza del Teatro Nuovo” in 1994, and joining the Trocks in 2001. With the Trocks, he has danced a variety of leading male and female roles, including Odette, Prince Siegried, Von Rothbart and Benno in “Swan Lake” and Giselle, Myrtha, and Prince Albrecht in “Giselle” and has performed on stages around the world including the Bolshoi Theatre, Theatre du Chatelet, the Kennedy Center, and the Joyce Theater. He has choreographed works including “Majisimas,” a parody of the ballet “Majisimo” by Cuban Choregrapher Jorge Garcia and as Ballet Master since 2015 he has set ballets for the Trocks including “La Naiade and le Pecheur” , “Napoli Pas de six” and “Stars and Stripes Forever.”

 Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo was founded in 1974 by a group of ballet enthusiasts for the purpose of presenting a playful, entertaining view of traditional, classical ballet in parody form and en travesti, Les Ballets Trockadero first performed in the late-late shows in Off-Off Broadway lofts. The TROCKS, as they are affectionately known, quickly garnered a major critical essay by Arlene Croce in The New Yorker, and combined with reviews in The New York Times  and The Village Voice, established the Company as an artistic and popular success.  By mid 1975, the TROCKS’ inspired blend of their loving knowledge of dance, their comic approach, and the astounding fact that men can, indeed, dance  en pointe  without falling flat on their faces, was being noted beyond New York.  Articles and notices in publications such as Variety, Oui, The London Daily Telegraph, as well as a Richard Avedon photo essay in Vogue, made the Company nationally and internationally known.

See Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo at The Joyce Theater – Dec 11–30, 2018

The Joyce Master Class Series is supported by a grant award from the National Endowment for the Arts, and made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature. Special support has been provided by the May and Samuel Rudin Family Foundation, Inc. Community Connections is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council with special thanks to Council Speaker Corey Johnson.

Photo of The Company, Joshua Thake on floor (aka Eugenia Replskii) by Zoran Jelenic.

ACCESSIBILITY

The accessible entrance for this location is located at 280 Broadway. Please note that this is a shared entrance with the New York City Department of Buildings. To access the elevator, attendees may be asked to provide a valid photo ID and go through building security, including a metal detector.

Requests for reasonable accommodation or for access to the 280 Broadway entrance after 5:00 pm or on the weekend should be made three days in advance by contacting Elyse Desmond at 646.837.6809 (Voice only), or by e-mailing elyse@gibneydance.org.