‘As long as it takes’ BU hosts Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo

The unique performance took place at the Osterhout Concert Theater on Feb. 25.

Community members flocked to the Osterhout Concert Theater on Saturday to attend Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, a male comedic ballet company that has been performing en travesti — drag — since its founding in 1974. The ballet company has garnered both critical success and a dedicated audience with its playful parodies of well-known pieces.

Around 130 community members honored the Ukrainian lives lost in war this past Saturday.

The Binghamton community rallied for Ukraine outside the Broome County Courthouse on Saturday.

Around 130 people attended the gathering, which included an interfaith prayer service, speeches from local activists, live music and appearances from elected officials.

The rally was organized to “express support for Ukraine in its fight for freedom, democracy and justice on the one-year anniversary of the unprovoked full-scale Russian invasion in Ukraine,” according to a press release from the Together for Ukraine Foundation. The organization was formed in 2014 as a response to Ukraine’s growing needs in medical and humanitarian aid.

The Russian military invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022 in an attempt to prevent Ukraine from joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), according to the BBC. The war has continued for a year with a current estimate of 8,006 civilian deaths and 13,287 civilians injured, according to Statista. In 2022, U.S. President Joe Biden created the “Unite for Ukraine” program, which allows Americans to sponsor Ukrainian citizens and expedite visa applications for asylum seekers.

Anatoliy Pradun, president of the Together for Ukraine Foundation, opened with a tribute to Ukrainian lives lost during the war effort, also recognizing networks that have emerged to help survivors.

The Trockaderos, or the “Trocks” as they are also known, engage in a kind of “character-ception.” These performers are not just playing the characters of the piece they are performing — they are also taking on a dancer’s persona. Takaomi Yoshino does not just play the Queen of the Swans, they play as Varvara Laptopova — a dancer who is credited within the program as being “awarded for her artistic misinterpretation.” Each performer takes on a specific kind of personality that affects how they perform each of the piece’s roles.

Giovanni Pesce, a Binghamton resident, said that he felt inspired by the show.

“I thought it was amazing,” Pesce said. “When you step back from it all and look at all the dancers, you kind of realize how arbitrary gender is. Being a queer person, seeing this dismantling of binary parts — something about that is just really beautiful.”

The night began with Le Lac des Cygnes, or Swan Lake, Act II. The set design was elaborate, featuring a backdrop of a mountain and a lake as the evil wizard Von Rothbart cast a spell that ushered in a giant cloud of smoke. This piece combined incredible technique and storytelling with comedic elements that kept the audience delighted. A recurring comedic gag of this piece was all of the swans disliking Prince Siegfried’s friend, Benno, who they continuously deny the advances of and even beat up on stage. The Trocks’ reimagining of Swan Lake featured incidents of musical cues gone awry, where in one instance the Prince did his starting position across the entire stage waiting for his music to begin — only to be forced to give up and leave. Other examples were dancers that were out of formation and one performer who embodied the classic “hi, mom!” archetype — dedicated to waving at the audience whenever they got the chance.