Young dancer gets to the pointe at Les Ballets Trockadero
As a boy growing up in the disciplined world of classical-ballet training in Lausanne, Switzerland, Ugo Cirri was clear on what the expectations were.
“You wanted to do traditional male roles,” he says, speaking to the Straight from New York City. “They push you so hard and expectations are so high.
“At first I didn’t like ballet because I thought it was very intense, and the teacher was very strict and yelling at us,” he continues, adding his height also became a challenge later on, as he fell just short of the European classical ideal of 180 centimetres. “Eventually, I grew to like it, but my mom had to push me.”
As a small act of rebellion, Cirri would sometimes don a ballerina’s satin-y pink slippers and dance in the studio. “From as long as I can remember I was putting pointe shoes on,” he says. “I would piqué on them, go straight up on the toes, which makes it easier. But I could only do it for, like, 10 minutes at a time.”
These days, though, Cirri finds himself in the unexpected position of wearing pointe shoes almost every night on-stage. As a new member of Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, he performs with an all-male troupe that wears tutus and wigs to send up some of the world’s most famous ballets. And the San Francisco Ballet School alumnus, who also did a more traditional stint as a dancer with Los Angeles Ballet, is here to tell you that as light and fun as the Trocks’ shows are, they involve some of the most demanding work he’s ever had to do.
“Not only do you have to have the technique, but you have to carry that whole Trockadero thing on-stage,” he says. “I have to be funny, and then I have a wig on my head. And you have to put your own makeup on; nobody tells you how hard drag makeup is.”
Cirri had been exposed to the Trocks’ antics at about 12 or 13, but his old-school training made him dismiss them as a career option. He came to the U.S. to study, and it wasn’t until he left the L.A. troupe that he saw his opportunity to apply. In June of last year he was taking a holiday at home in Switzerland when one of the male ballerinas got injured, and he had to drop everything to join the Trocks on a tour of Germany and Austria.
“At first, I was so overwhelmed,” he recalls. “You’re learning so many things at one time. I went from being on holiday to suddenly being onstage in a tutu and pointe shoes.”
As Cirri has travelled with the troupe to Thailand, Japan, and now Canada for the first time, that intense learning curve has continued. When the Trocks return to town, watch for him under the noms de ballet Minnie Van Driver and William Vanilla, and in some of his favourite pieces, such as the classically elegant Paquita and the Jerome Robbins send-up Nightcrawlers.
As for his family, they’re happy that he’s happy—especially his mom, who pushed him to continue with ballet.
“She was the one who’d always be saying I should apply there,” he says of Les Trockaderos. “She had always loved the comedy and the drag side of it. She would be the one saying, ‘Fuck ballet and what they want.’”
Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo is at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre on Saturday (February 1).