Since opening at the Joyce last week, Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo has had a surfeit of swans: white, black and even dying ones. Those birds of a feather were the best of a funny flock.
Founded locally in 1974, (the Monte Carlo bit is a gag) “The Trocks” have created pint-size versions of the classical repertoire — only without women: The guys dance all the parts, and can be as impressive as they are humorous.
Here, in Act 2 of “Swan Lake,” poor, trapped Odette — the white swan — was played by Roberto Forleo’s alter ego, Marina Plezegetovstageskaya, who has gorgeously arched feet, a marvelous beak of a nose and a lawn of curly chest hair. She leapt to center stage and flashed a toothy grin at the audience with comic timing that would make Fanny Brice jealous, then plucked the ballet apart with methodical, absurd logic.
It wasn’t all laughs. Forleo did scrupulously beautiful fluttering jumps in the coda. If you want a crash course in ballet mime, watch the Trocks. No one does it more clearly — yet they manage to work in jokes by “overenunciating.”
The “Black Swan” pas de deux was fascinating — even enlightening. Yekaterina Verbosovich (Chase Johnsey), played it in deadly earnest and pushed the fatale aspect of his femme to “Basic Instinct” level. Every heavy breath and leer reeked with sexual danger — all the odder when her prey was the tiny Innokenti Smoktumuchsky (Carlos Hopuy). But you’ve never seen a performance with more subtext.
The “Dying Swan,” not to be confused with the principals of “Swan Lake,” was a bonbon made to Saint-Saëns for Anna Pavlova. Ida Nevasayneva (Paul Ghiselin, the company’s senior dancer and ballet master) was coaxed out of retirement for what is by now the Undying Swan, a shtick where the curtain call is the longest part.
The weak link of the evening was the premiere of “Laurencia,” an excerpt of a 1939 Spanish pastiche from the Soviet Union that’s never been seen in the US. After the on-target zinging of “Swan Lake,” it seemed pale — steps without satire.
Olga Supphozova (Robert Carter) led the cast with manic intensity. She spilled during a turn, but bounced up almost before you realized it.
The Trocks add jokes in as they go — sneaking Psy’s “Gangnam Style” into a Balanchine parody — so “Laurencia” should have them soon. As in all their productions, you’ll see things in the ballet you might have missed if they played it straight.