Northrop Presents
Postponed: Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo
Past event
Jan 29, 2026
The Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo performance currently scheduled for Thursday, Jan. 29 has been postponed and will be rescheduled in the 2026-27 Northrop Season on a date yet to be determined. We anticipate tickets being available for purchase when we announce the 2026-27 Northrop Season this spring. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.
Ticket holders who purchased their tickets from Northrop have been notified by email with details about their tickets. Contact the Box Office with any questions at umntix@umn.edu or 612-624-2345, Monday-Friday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.
The Trocks and all of us at Northrop are disappointed that the performance has been postponed and we appreciate your understanding.
*Northrop is the only authorized ticket seller for this event. Tickets purchased from unauthorized third party agents may be counterfeit or invalid. Northrop is not able to honor, replace or refund invalid tickets. If you did not purchase your tickets from Northrop, please direct all inquiries and refund requests to the vendor from whom the tickets were purchased.
Never fear, the “Trocks” will be back! “The World’s Foremost Gender-Skewering Comic Ballet Company” — famed for performing polished parodies of classical ballet “en pointe” and “en travesti” — continues its quest for global adoration after more than 50 fantastic years of artistic hilarity. Dance aficionados, drag lovers and novices to both art forms alike will revel in the technical skill and uproarious antics of the Trocks, as they are affectionately known. A Northrop audience favorite returning for the first time since 2000, the Trocks promise “the funniest night you’ll ever have at the ballet” (The Guardian), amazing viewers worldwide with their virtuosity and utter cleverness.
Top image: Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo. Photo courtesy of the artist.
Articles & More
The New York Times Review: “The Trocks Fill Out the Laughs With Dancing Chops”
“One of the most unusually gifted dance companies in existence.”—The Stage
“The amalgam of ballerina finesse and daft diva antics is brilliant, unsettling, riveting: the epitome of Trocks style.”—The New York Times
“The magic of Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo is guaranteed to warm any frozen heart that dares walk into their show.”—Ballet Herald
“They are the best kind of artful parodists, capable of illuminating the most gripping sections of academic classical ballet, albeit via a wink and smile and the occasional well-placed shtick.”—Calgary Herald
“The Trocks gracefully and ingeniously combine slapstick, farce, and clowning with the pure artistry of dance.”—The Berkshire Edge
Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo website
Ballerina Boys (2021) documentary film
Learn More - Explore These Themes
The content below derives from the Northrop Across Campus Program that supports Northrop's mission towards intersections between performing arts and education for the benefit of all participants now and for generations to come.
Find ways to make thematic connections to these suggested topics:
- Dance: Ballet, Contemporary
- Theatre Arts: Stage Makeup
- Comedy & Parody
- Community Engagement
- American Studies
- Gender & Sexuality Studies
Dive deeper with these resources that provide additional information about the performers, the history of the artform, and the artistic process.
Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo website
"Men in Tights and Tutus: The Trocks Turn 50, Humor Intact"—The New York Times
"Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo Review—Arabesques, Pratfalls and a Swan on Wheels"—The Guardian
"The Trocks, an All-Male Dance Troupe, Balance Camp and Skill"—The New York Times
Coleman, Bertram E., III. “Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo: A History of the Company, 1974 to 1990.” PhD dissertation, The University of Texas at Austin, 1993. ProQuest Dissertations & Theses (9413466).
"The Trocks Celebrate Their Golden Anniversary"—Pointe Magazine
LGBTQIA+ Studies: A Resource Guide. “1969: The Stonewall Uprising."—Library of Congress
"The Trocks’ Deadly Serious Spoofing; City Ballet’s Revitalized Coppélia"—Observer
Video: "Ballerina Boys, Official Trailer"—PBS American Masters
Start a conversation about the performance or encourage reflection, using these questions as inspiration.
Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, the world’s foremost gender-skewering comic ballet company, was founded in 1974 in the wake of the Stonewall Uprising, a monumental clash between police and LGBTQ+ protesters in New York. Since the company’s inception, their highly subversive viewpoint has grown into crowd-pleasing, globe-spanning entertainment, presenting playful parodies of traditional, classical ballet, with men performing all the roles.
- How does the Trocks’s self-described gender-skewering comedic ballet company subvert and celebrate historical ballet traditions?
- How might the experience of a dancer performing for the Trocks be similar or different today versus 50 years ago? How might the experience of an audience member be similar or different?
Dance aficionados and first-time audiences alike will revel in the technical skill and uproarious antics of the "Trocks," as they are affectionately known. “The level of dancing is now so high that we’re less and less inclined to laugh and more and more likely to ponder the ambiguities of a male dancer who can actually be convincing as Odette, Giselle, Paquita,” Robert Gottlieb wrote in The New York Observer in 2009.
- How might the Trocks’s advanced technical skills be utilized to both engage audiences and subvert ideas of gender in culture and dance?
- How might dance, or art more generally, change cultural ideas of gender?
According to The Berkshire Edge, “The Trocks gracefully and ingeniously combine slapstick, farce, and clowning with pure artistry of dance … The company has a knack for expertly walking the fine line between caricature of ballet and dance (and themselves), and complete reverence for that same art form.”
- How does comedy break down barriers between artists and audience members, preparing the audience for a more participatory and collaborative experience?
- What differentiates clowning, parody, and slapstick comedy, and how might they each bring unique elements to caricature and reverence of ballet and dance?
Acknowledgments
This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a Minnesota State Arts Board Operating Support grant, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.
Sponsored by hospitality partner, the Graduate Hotel Minneapolis