Knights in lite satin

By ELEANOR BLACK

Six swans tiptoe across the stage en pointe, heads tucked shyly to the side in one of the best-loved ballet scenes of all time. They are a picture of sweetness and grace until one swan bites another, six long necks stretch wildly in aggression, and all hell breaks loose.

The dancers scrapping on stage are classically trained and Tchaikovsky's score is unmarred, but this version of Swan Lake is like nothing you've ever seen. It is the work of Les Ballets Trockadero De Monte Carlo, an all-male comic ballet company set up in 1974 to challenge the elitist aura surrounding classical dance and make people laugh.

From off-off-Broadway lofts to sell-out theatres all over the world, the drag dancers have attracted a fiercely loyal, some would say obsessed, following. Ballet haters, ballet aficionados and critics alike lurve the New York-based company, probably because these are not just a bunch of big guys getting a gag out of stuffing themselves into tulle and satin and clomping around a theatre. They are exceptionally good dancers who are able to spoof their craft because they know it so well.

The Trocks, as they call themselves, encourage their audiences not to wait for the end of the scene before they applaud or, just as likely, lean forward in their seats to laugh raucously. Rather, they encourage it by arching heavily pencilled eyebrows and pouting like prima donnas.

Of course, it's not all fun. This is ballet, which means sore feet, diet restrictions, exhaustion and short careers. And each performance is dedicated to those Trocks who have died of Aids, or other equally deserving causes, a point underlined during their exuberant version of the modern classic Go For Barocco when each Trock wears a red Aids ribbon pinned to his brief costume.

Every man in the troupe of 14 has to be able to dance en pointe, and it generally takes a year from joining until they are confident enough to perform on their toes. The first time is like trying on rollerskates, says 30-year-old Fernando Medina Gallego, a Spaniard who joined the Trocks at the end of 1998.

Formerly a member of the Classical Ballet of Barcelona and Ballet de L'Opera de Nice, he was dissatisfied with his anonymous spot in the corps de ballet. He wanted to be a star - in the Trocks he regularly gets his chance to shine, baby.

Even a man with a body unsuited to traditional ballet can sparkle in a satiny skirt, says Gallego. "One of the most popular dancers was a very, very tall and fat boy. It made no sense to put him en pointe and he was so big - it was very funny."

Still, most of the Trocks are much more slender than your average male. Some of them become so preoccupied with pulling off the illusion of being female that they eat next to nothing, he says. During training they balance their work on the female roles with work on the masculine ones, although everyone knows that on the night it is the men wearing the tutus and deep blue eyeshadow who will get the biggest laughs and applause.

But there are times in the show when the artifice is so convincing that it is possible to forget that some of the more delicate dancers are actually men.

The Trocks' performance begins well before the lights go down. The printed programme is as ludicrous as the notion of men in tiaras. The introductory voiceover in an exaggerated Russian accent, explaining that the punters should consider themselves lucky because the dancers are in a good mood, sets the tone for an evening of uncomplicated fun.

The programme's "biographical" notes are relentlessly camp. Larissa Dumbchenko, one of two characters played by 26-year-old Italian Raffaele Morra, is best known, we are told, for being the first ballerina shot into space.

"Hurtling through the stratosphere, she delivered handy make-up tips to an assembled crowd of celebrities back on Earth, including the now legendary 'Whitney Houston, we have a problem ... "'

The dancers' stage names are unabashedly silly. You can't help but look forward to Ida Nevasayneva's Dying Swan, and when the time comes you are not disappointed.

The Trocks' signature piece is the second act of Swan Lake, which is both beautiful and funny enough to make you snort out loud. It can't be helped - watching one burly man lifting another (while the liftee desperately tries to keep his skirt down) is funny in a basic, no-brains-required way.

The Trocks have a reputation for exacting standards of entry, but getting in is made more difficult by the group's hectic schedule, says Morra, who joined last year.

Touring almost constantly, from Europe to North America and Japan, the Trocks have a fanatical band of supporters who trail after them from city to city for two months every year. Morra managed to get an audition only because he knew a company member and was able to keep track of their whereabouts.

His reason for joining is simple: "I want to go [on stage] and have fun. That's what the Trocks are - amusement and that's all."

* Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, The Civic, October 9-13.