Swan Lake (Act II) / Pas de deux / Le Grand Pas de Quatre / MajÍsimas

Swan Lake (Act II) is the best-known work by Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, an all-male corps of professional dancers who parody the clichés of romantic and classical ballet. Complete in tutus, they portray the parts usually reserved for female dancers in the glamorous style of 19th century Russian ballet. The comedy builds, not only because the performers are men but also because of their exaggeration of certain situations in the works and the incongruous nature of the choreography inherent in classical ballet.
The original cast of Pas de Quatre only performed the work on four occasions (Queen Victoria and Prince Albert were present at the third) but it served as a model for what we now call “abstract ballet”. It survives today as one of the maddest, but also most delightful, evocations of the romantic ballet of 1840.
The final piece, Majísimas, with music by Jules Massenet, takes its inspiration from the second act of the French composer’s 1885 opera, Le Cid, in a seductive and exotic presentation which plays with the intricate beauty of classical ballet.

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