The Public Reviews, Dave Cunningham 29.1.13

Artistic Director Tony Dobrin offers a varied programme. Opening with the goofy but glorious version of ‘Les Sylphides’ featuring slapstick such as a dancer sleepwalking and plummeting screaming into the audience and a backing dancer grimly resigned to continually being flattened by a careless star. The sequences become subtler showing greater technical expertise but not ignoring the humour. Whilst technically excellent ‘Black Swan Pas de Deux’ also offers a great sight gag of a Swan towering over a diminutive Prince.

The warm-hearted spirit of the show is such that you instinctively accept that the apparent errors of the cast arise not from under-rehearsal but rather over-enthusiasm. After delivering a flawless sequence it seems only right that the dancer should celebrate by turning cartwheels.

The appeal of ‘Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo’ is hard to describe other than to repeat that – some things are just funny.

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