There is no need to behave too much at the ballet next weekend. In fact, go on and roar with laughter – even if a dancer stumbles.
That’s what the director and choreographer want you to do at “Comedy Tonight,” the final season performances of Ballet Vero Beach on April 5 and 6.
“Audiences are absolutely going to love this,” says choreographer and ballet master Camilo Rodriguez. “All they have to know is they are allowed to laugh from the beginning.”
Camilo Rodriguez
The program comprises three comic ballets: “Go for Barocco,” with music by Bach and choreographed by Peter Anastos; “Hang On, No Need to Be Lonely,” with music by Pink Martini and choreographed by Rodriguez; and “La Trovatiara pas de Cinq,” again choreographed by Anastos and set to music by Verdi.
Each dance uses men dressed as ballerinas, performing en pointe, with maybe even a tutu or two. Anyone familiar with the famed Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo will understand immediately.
It’s not surprising this comic conceit is being used – Anastos was the founding director and choreographer of that celebrated group. Both Rodriguez and Ballet Vero Beach founder/artistic director Adam Schnell have performed with “The Trocks,” as it’s known in the world of dance.
However, a big departure with the “Comedy Tonight” performances is that female dancers are used as well.
For example, in “Go for Barocco,” four female ballerinas dance behind two male “ballerinas” for comic effect. The simple storyline concerns the two dreadful ballerinas (danced by men) who try to outdo each other.
“You get this crazy romp of four talented female dancers and two ‘female’ dancers in front,” said Schnell. “Immediately, within the first 15 seconds, the ballet starts to go wrong and unravel.”
The ballet was one of Anastos’ first and was created to skewer the neo-classical style of George Balanchine, the legendary co-founder of the New York City Ballet.
“People found (Balanchine’s) style cool and clinical,” Schnell says. “Peter wanted to poke fun at it and made it robot and machine-like. Seasoned dance lovers will see that. But for novice dancer-goers, it’s this amazing little story of what happens when one thing is not like the other.”
In Anastos’ second ballet, “La Trovatiara Pas de Cinq,” the storyline concerns pirates, danced by strong females, and the tiny boy pirates who do their bidding. And rather than a pas de deux, it’s a pas de cinq, or, danced by five.
The gag happens immediately, Schnell says, because you have tall, strong women juxtaposed with short men.
“Peter (Anastos) has been amazing,” Schnell says. “He has been in and out of comedy ballet his entire career. He’s an exceptional choreographer. His actual steps in ballet are so amazing and the comedy is woven in so precisely, you forget you’re watching something that is supposed to be funny.”
Rodriguez uses a mod aesthetic in “Hang On, No Need to Be Lonely.” The story concerns a girl who is continually unlucky in love. He came up with the idea while listening to Pink Martini, which performs jaunty, swingy music with an early, finger-snapping ’60s vibe.
“I like them so much,” he says. “The song kept suggesting no need to be lonely; there’s always a bright day, maybe tomorrow.”
All three dances use a bit of slapstick to make it funny, Rodriguez says.
“Boys that cannot dance en pointe is funny obviously,” he says. “And a boy that can dance en pointe, but then the persona, the character, (expresses himself) in a funny way. And the third simplistic formula for comedic ballet is a short male dancer with a tall female.”
The program is not just for deeply informed lovers of dance, but also for those who have never been to a ballet. Using comedy as a universal language should appeal to all, says Schnell.
“The three of us have an affinity for comedy ballet,” Schnell adds. “And it’s so much easier to engage audiences with a comedy. For me, the laughter is sort of a means to a deeper appreciation of what not only Ballet Vero Beach is doing, but what our dancers can do.”
He says comic ballet has a surprising effect on dancers: It makes them freer.
Funny ballets are not just the domain of men dressing as ballerinas. Great choreographers, like America’s Jerome Robbins, French-Russian choreographer Marius Petipa and British choreographer Sir Frederick Ashton, have created comic ballets.
Robbins, who choreographed for the American Ballet Theatre and was made widely famous for his work on Broadway with shows such as “West Side Story” and “The King and I,” created the comic ballet “The Concert.”
Petipa, whose choreography still inhabits classic productions of “Swan Lake” and “The Sleeping Beauty,” created the comic ballet “Don Quixote.”
And Ashton, who was with the Royal Ballet, created “La fille mal gardée,” also known as “The Wayward Daughter.”
Men dancing as women in the ballet is nothing new. In the 1800s, men began dressing as women when the roles were meant to depict ugly, horrid women, like Cinderella’s ugly stepsisters or wicked fairies. Coming out of the romantic period, the ideal woman was meant to be beautiful.
Conversely, women sometimes danced male roles when the characters were supposed to be slight or boyish, like the prince in Giselle. Then, the ideal man needed to be strong and heroic.
“It’s not a new phenomenon, as people tend to think it is,” says Schnell.
But for Ballet Vero Beach, the idea to perform “Comedy Tonight” is a way to end the season with a lighthearted touch and also to show patrons that the company has a sense of humor and is approachable.
The company has performed serious, artful programs including works by George Balanchine and Petipa. Schnell calls them “cerebral.”
“I always knew that comedy would be part of what we do; not only to get new audiences but for our patrons, who can go see any company in the world,” he says. “Here, they can see something different.”
Ballet Vero Beach presents “Comedy Tonight” at 8 p.m. on April 5, and at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. on April 6, at the Vero Beach High School Performing Arts Center, 1707 16th St., Vero Beach. Tickets range from $10 to $75. Call 772-905-2651 or visit www.BalletVeroBeach.org.
