They have been delighting ballet enthusiasts for nigh on half a century and, if the measure of any company is the number of audiences its members have thrilled, then 43 countries and 660 cities worldwide can’t be wrong!

Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, affectionately known as ‘The Trocks’, have been strutting their stuff since 1974 when New York first got a taste of their comedic ballet style, long before drag performance had hit the mainstream.

Since then, OTT makeup, big eyelashes and masculine frames hidden behind tutus and pointe shoes, have slowly but surely carved out an international reputation for the company, prompting queues whenever they appear.

But, for all the company’s subtle and, invariably, not so subtle tomfoolery, each and every member has one thing in common: they are all trained ballet dancers of the highest calibre, unless choreography suggests otherwise!

The original concept behind The Trocks has never changed: “….a company of professional dancers performing the full range of ballet and modern dance repertoire including classical and original works, in faithful rendition of the manners and conceits of those dance styles.”

And earlier this evening Bradford lapped up its third dose of Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo’s choreographic mayhem following the Trocks’ 2013 and 2022 appearances.

Robert Carter, aka Olga Supphozova’s dying swan nearly drowned in a shower of its own feathers, while Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky would have probably turned in his grave laughing had he witnessed the company’s take on Le Lac Des Cygnes from Act II of Swan Lake.

The humour is clearly in the fact that athletic men balancing on their toes and giving it their all, leaves little to nuance and, when the ballet gets just a tad too much, they are not averse to a few hip wiggling disco moves….and then it’s back into character.

The Trocks are masters of comedic dance and have taken high camp to a new level but, clearly, they are all superb dancers which is where the ‘drag’ ends and the talent takes over. Their performance is somewhere between Bill Dainty’s Widow Twanky, Dame Margot Fonteyn’s elegance and Danny La Rue’s makeup!

They take excerpts from the classics then proceed to bend the recorded notation whilst adding a sprinkle of OTT performance – split second waves to the audience, upstaging one another, and even a dying swan left gasping for breath!

I am sure it is marginally different every night but one thing is for certain, its irreverence will never disappoint! Well worth your sense of fun.

Just one night left before the company moves on to Milton Keynes.

Les Ballets Trockadero De Monte Carlo
Alhambra, Bradford
Tomorrow Night Only: (Sat 30th May 2026)