All language subtitles for American Masters Ballerina Boys

♪

♪

-The tutus, the pointe shoes,
the glamour.

It was just always
fascinating to me.

All of it.

That just appealed to me

'cause there was just
such art and beauty.

♪

-Being in the company,
we were pushing the limits

of the definition
of what men did.

What Ballets Trockadero has done
over the years

is turned this notion
of what is beautiful in ballet

kind of on its head
and turned it upside down

so that there can be moments
in this ballet

where you just say, "Wow!"

♪

♪

♪

-What the Trocks did
was really upend

all of the traditions of ballet

and, at the same time, embraced
all of the traditions of ballet.

-Everything we did was layered.

Everything had some
historical precedent and moment.

It was like putting the history
of ballet through a blender.

And you're gonna come out
with this shake.

-15 minutes
to the top of the show.

This is 15 minutes
to "Swan Lake."

-On paper,
when it's advertised, it says,

"All-male comedy
ballet company."

We are Les Ballets Trockadero
de Monte Carlo,

but people fondly call us
"The Trocks,"

the drag ballet company.

-This is 10 minutes to places.

This is 10 minutes
until the top of the show.

This is 10 minutes.

-We're a ballet show,

and I think the aspect
of it being drag entertainment

is a wide net to expose ballet
to a bunch of people.

Their guard is let down
through comedy.

♪

[ Laughter ]

♪

So people come
that are ballet fans.

People come on dates.

People can bring their families.

-We are a serious ballet company
with training, with rehearsals,

that travel around the world
just dancing.

-We go everywhere.
We're not just in New York.

We're not just in London
or Tokyo.

We're in North Carolina.
We're in West Texas.

We're everywhere.

-The Trockadero did a lot
to popularize ballet

in a country that didn't quite
trust it yet.

People understood,
"If we can go to the ballet,

and we could laugh,
hey, it's not so bad after all.

Maybe we should go see
another ballet."

-These guys decided
"We're gonna dance,"

taking something
that's so formal

and using it
to give joy to people...

♪

[ Laughter ]

...and joy to themselves

and create something
that was a form of resistance.

♪

[ Laughter ]

"We're gonna be fun,
and people are gonna love us,

and we're gay."

♪

-The mission of the company
when it was first started

was to have a fun, playful time
with classical ballet

using drag
as part of the comedy.

♪

-The longevity of the Trockadero
was kind of amazing.

The Trockadero really has been
an ambassador for physical humor

and for American humor.

It's a little bit out-there.
It's sometimes rude and weird.

We never pull teeth.

We never tortured anybody.

I mean, except for people
that hated us.

♪

[ Cheers and applause ]

♪

[ Laughter ]

-I have to tell you, at the very
beginning of all this,

it was kind of a lark.

It wasn't like we formed
this ballet company

and, you know, here we are,
we're established.

♪

[ Laughter ]

We didn't know
what was gonna happen.

We were all in the dark.

This happens
with a lot of things

that in hindsight
look thought out.

[ Laughs ]

♪

Success was certainly
not thought out.

We had no idea
that was gonna happen.

It was just, the time
was absolutely right.

So, the 1970s was a perfect
moment for us to strike.

-So, into the stew
emerge the Trocks.

[ Laughter ]

It's impossible to imagine
that there could have been

a company like the Trocks
before it was founded in 1974.

It's a little hard to believe
that there
was
a Trocks in 1974,

but it was
a more expansive time,

and there was the possibility
of something

as transgressive as the Trocks.

♪

-At the period
that we came along,

it was during that upheaval
after the Stonewall riots

and when social mores and
cultural mores were changing.

♪

We came along, and we kind of
shook things up a little bit.

[ Laughter ]

-I came out when I moved
to New York.

But in those days, you know,
in the late '60s and '70s,

coming out wasn't like
the '20s or '30s

or certainly the 19th century,

when there was no such thing
as coming out,

because Stonewall
had already happened.

-1969, June 28th,
in the early-morning hours,

the police raided
the Stonewall Inn.

There are so many myths about
what happened at Stonewall.

Some of those myths were caused

by the press coverage
at the time.

The
Daily News
headline was

"Homo Nest Raided,
Queen Bees Are Stinging Mad."

And they described
in that article

- and also the Village Voice
- article

about how there was a kick line
that confronted the police.

They were
gender-nonconforming kids.

They didn't
call themselves that then.

And instead of running away
from this line of police

who were simply
goose-stepping toward them,

they formed a kick line
and chanted,

"We are the Village girls.
We wear our hair in curls.

We wear our dungarees
above our nelly knees."

And there was one more line
before the police charged them.

And so these were teenagers
having a lot of fun

at the policemen's expense,

and the police
couldn't stand it.

Stonewall was the ignition point
in a movement

that spread across the country
and then around the world.

[ Crowd chanting indistinctly ]

-Without the Stonewall riots,
I don't think that a company

like Les Ballets Trockadero
could have started.

Stonewall blew open the door

and made all kinds
of performances possible.

♪

-The 1970s in New York
was called the Dance Explosion.

You know, there were
ballet companies

and modern dance companies,
contemporary companies.

Really, every other block,

somebody had a loft
and a company.

And the New York City Ballet
was a great power,

and ABT was a great power.

And all the big companies
from Europe

came regularly to New York.

The whole place
was just dance-crazy.

There were just
so many companies.

[ Laughter ]

So, in a way, we fitted
into that whole scheme.

Why not a drag ballet company?

You know, why not men in tutus?

Everything else is happening.
Why not that?

♪

-It is part
of that whole post-Stonewall.

"We're gonna perform. We're
gonna wear what we want to wear.

We're gonna do
what we want to do."

♪

-But doing anything that was
gay-related in the 1970s,

whether you intended it
to be political or not,

it was a political statement.

Whether the Trocks thought
they were doing

something political or not,

it was definitely
a political action,

or it was perceived as such.

♪

♪

-The first time
I saw the Trocks, I was 12,

and my reaction was
seeing heaven open.

♪

And I just looked at my parents,
and it was like,

"That's the perfect
place for me."

♪

I think everything starts
when we are doing our makeup.

I start getting
in my own bubble,

where Kevin is aside
and I become a ballerina.

♪

This company brings me
the opportunity

to be, finally, Kevin
without any wall.

-There is something
really empowering

about performing in drag.

Let's go and do it.

♪

In the traditional companies,
you end up dancing

the male roles behind a girl,
just partnering,

and I felt
that wasn't enough for me.

I always put the pointe shoes on
by the side, hiding.

Girls are classically trained
to go en pointe when they're 11.

I wore pointe shoes
at about 22 years old.

So my body wasn't ready
for that.

♪

It is painful, and it never
really gets better,

but there is that moment when
your body is really used to it

and you just don't
feel it anymore.

And those are the best moments.

♪

I feel that when I wear
the pointe shoes,

the whole alignment of my body
is different.

I can move
more like a ballerina.

♪

You have to have
a certain control, balance,

a refinement that
you just don't feel on flat.

♪

If you can surpass that misery,
you can really feel

there is this beautiful energy
going on in your body.

♪

You feel like
a different dancer.

♪

When I dance a female role,

I am not trying to be a woman,
if you want to say.

I am trying to be the character
that I'm portraying.

I'm really trying to channel
all the ballerinas

that I've been looking up to

and all the feelings
that this ballerina can portray

when she dances that role.

♪

When I'm Swan Queen,

I'm not trying to be
a woman playing Odette

or a man dressed as a woman
playing that role,

'cause that's a lot.

That's a lot to think about.

I'm just trying to really think

of that character
that I'm dancing.

[ Laughter ]

♪

Odette is a princess
and under the spell of Rothbart,

and she becomes a swan.

You have to portray
this sort of feeling

of being trapped
into someone else's body.

[ Sobs ]

Or not able to be yourself.

[ Laughter ]

And that's a feeling

I'm sure everybody can relate to
in some ways.

♪

And that's what works when we
are truly, you know, ourselves.

[ Laughter ]

♪

It's a role
that every dancer looks up to,

and, yeah, it's such
an important figure in ballet.

Who doesn't love "Swan Lake"?

Who doesn't remember
the Swan Queen?

[ Laughter ]

There's a lot of expectation
even in the normal company.

Everyone comes to watch
the Swan Queen.

So I have a lot to work on,
to deliver,

because it's good
to be a Swan Queen,

but it's good
to be a
good
Swan Queen.

♪

[ Applause ]

-In companies like ours,
which is a self-created company,

there's no institution
behind it.

There's no academy.

You know, when we started
the Trockadero,

we just declared ourselves
to be a ballet company.

We didn't go through "Go."
We didn't stop at Park Place.

We just said, "Here we are,"

and I just declared myself
to be a prima ballerina.

I had no dancing career at all.

I just said, "This is it.
I'm a prima ballerina."

And I was accepted as that.

So it was kind of weird
that we appeared on the scene

and we were
immediately accepted.

Well, by most people.

A lot of the muckety-muck
dance establishment

didn't necessarily like us.

They thought what we were doing
was terrible

and insulting and wrong.

But that's actually not
what we were up to.

We were up to celebrating ballet
and saying,

"This is the greatest thing
in the world,

and it can stand
a little parody."

♪

All the things in "Giselle"...
You know, the Wilis,

the dead girls running around
in the cemetery at night,

"Swan Lake," Prince
falls in love with a bird

and brings her home to mother to
say, "I'd like to marry her"...

you know, all these things
are absolutely ripe for parody.

♪

[ Laughter ]

Well, once we had
a ballet company,

we had to have names
for all the dancers,

because we couldn't just appear
as, you know,

"Tom Smith is dancing
Odette tonight."

[ Laughter ]

And so in those days, all these
serious ballet companies,

everyone had to have
a Russian name.

So we thought, "Well,
we're the Trockadero.

We're gonna make up
sort of parody names."

So I became
Olga Tchikaboumskaya.

And then there was another
dancer named Ida Neversayneva.

This was just nuts,
just totally crazy.

Who are these ballerinas?

There was a guy
who was very chubby...

we called him Plushinskaya.

He was very plush.

All of our inspiration
and all the ballerina attitudes

came from the old
Russian ballet.

So we created this entire world.

From the minute you walked
in the theatre and started

reading the program,
there was a whole world.

Sometimes before the curtain
went up,

you can hear the audience
out front, and we hear people

start tittering
and giggling and laughing,

and you could tell...
And somebody would guffaw...

You could tell
they were reading the names.

And then we would always have an
announcement before the curtain,

"Please... no flashbulbs.

It reminds the ballerinas
of the Revolution."

[ Laughter ]

So we tried to channel

those sort of
old-fashioned ballerinas.

You know, it's very cute,
it's very over-the-top...

big eyebrows, big eyes,
a lot of kohl around the eyes.

It's all kind of
silent movie acting.

We could kind of put ourselves
in the line of ballet

from the 18th century until now.

We could put ourselves
in that arc.

-By men coming in
and dancing en pointe,

a lot of questions were raised
about things

that the ballet world
had thought for centuries.

The ballerina had always been
put up on a pedestal...

that essence of beauty,
the perfect body.

And we were coming along
and saying

"You can do Swan Queen
with a short, fat, black man,

and it's still realistic and
there's still a reason to it."

The role is still the same.

It's just the visual
is different.

Tony had worked with the
American Negro Ballet before.

He had toured in Europe.

There had been other black
ballerinas in the Ballets Russes

and in major companies,
but there had never been,

as far as I know,
a black Swan Queen.

So when he joined the Trocks,

having a black prima ballerina
was another first.

-Tony was a large black man

in a completely white,
female world of ballet,

which is what the ideal was.

And so when he came on stage,
I mean, people would gasp...

Really gasp.

And for the audience, it pushed
the envelope even more.

"Okay, we're gonna be
all these guys in tutus,

we're gonna be in drag,

and on top of that,
some of us are gonna be black.

How do you like that?"

-We came along and said,
"Why not?"

And they got
a different perspective

on both physical beauty

and the physical energy
that it took to do the ballets.

♪

♪

-Another bill that was
introduced last week

would change the definition
of marriage in South Carolina.

-We don't really feel like
there is a reason

for South Carolina to try to...

-A group of South Carolina
lawmakers are working on a bill

that would rename same-sex
marriage "Parody Marriage."

-It's called the Marriage and
Constitution Restoration Act.

It would prohibit the state
from respecting, endorsing,

or recognizing
any parody marriage.

-A newly passed bill
in North Carolina that has been

labeled the most extreme
anti-LGBT measure

in the country.

-We were just in a town
called San Angelo, Texas,

and one of the stagehands
had to move five hours

away from where he lived

because he got shot
for just being gay.

That just really broke my heart.

-On the main stage, the category
is "Wigs on Wigs on Wigs."

-On wigs.

-And may the best all-star win!

-Oh, my God, isn't everything
better with wings?

-Yeah.

-RuPaul's kind of like
a gay Oprah.

- Oh, okay!
- Okay!

-I think he put drag on the map

for, you know,
a whole community of people.

-I think the world
still perceives drag

as just a man in a dress
or a man impersonating,

but especially today,
it's evolved

to just so many
different facets.

-It's kind of a way
to show other people

that they should be
who they want to be

or could be
who's inside of them.

RuPaul always says,

"We're all born naked,
and the rest is drag."

We're all humans,

and we all put on
how we want to be perceived.

♪

-The first time my mom saw me
with the company,

she was okay with it at first.

You know, it's art, whatever.

And then she saw me in a picture
where I went out in drag,

and she asked me, she was like,
"Do you want to be a woman?"

You know, she was confused.
She didn't understand.

♪

Anatomically, I am a man.

I have these parts.

But I never really connected
to this idea

of what it was like to be a man
or what it meant to be a man.

I don't feel like a woman.
I'm myself.

And I express myself
in however it comes to me.

-Okay, so, we'll start
the laundry pile.

Love this.

-You know, it's a little
Judy Garland-inspired, 1960s.

-Are there shoulder pads?
-There
are
shoulder pads.

'Cause I have sloping shoulders,
so I'm gonna need some support.

And then, you know, you add
a nice, like, black trouser

with a little beaded fringe
on the side...

-Speaking of fringe,
did I show you this vest

that my grandpa
passed down to me?

- No.
- You want to see it?

-[ Gasps ]

-Isn't it awesome?

-Oh, my God.
He gave you fringe benefits.

[ Laughs ]

-Well, my dad was there
for Christmas

and got to go through
his closet,

and then he, like, sent me
all these pictures,

and he's like, "Yeah, you know,
you would love this."

I'm like, "You don't think
I've been thinking about this

for years, how I'm gonna
get into my grandfather's closet

and get all of that?"

[ Laughs ]

But it's awesome.

My dad's an athlete,
so his gift to me as a parent

was giving me the opportunity
to be able to play sports.

These are things
he didn't have growing up.

And so I was really confronted
with seeing

all of these other boys
who were a certain way

and I was not like that.

♪

♪

Growing up, not fitting in,

and wondering why I didn't like
to play football or basketball,

and my dad was the coach
of everything that I played.

♪

Track was okay because
track and field was mixed,

so there were girls there, so I
could hang out with the girls.

♪

Being able to be
in a company like this,

where I can freely be
black and gay

and a dancer on stage
and be good at it

is a great thing
for younger people to see.

I am fortunate enough to show
that this is possible.

♪

♪

[ Laughter ]

♪

[ Laughter ]

♪

[ Laughter ]

♪

♪

[ Applause ]

-Before we continue,
so that he can also breathe,

have you all seen
Ballets Trockadero?

Do you all know what
Ballets Trockadero is about?

What is very interesting about
this piece, "The Dying Swan,"

is that it shows a little bit
of all the different aspects

of Ballets Trockadero.

We make fun of ballet.

We change things around.

We sometimes even change steps.

But one thing that we keep
is the meaning of the piece.

We are still doing
"The Dying Swan."

So there's a little bit
of drama,

there is that feeling,
there is the presence.

Just because we do things before
that are funny doesn't mean

that the substance of
"The Dying Swan" is not there.

You still feel the sadness,
so that has to remain.

♪

[ Laughter ]

-Our first theatre in New York

was at a small loft theatre
on West 14th Street

in the middle of
the Meatpacking District.

Funny thing is,
you'd look out the window,

and there'd be huge lines
of limousines

with people coming in
in furs and long gowns.

They had been up
at Lincoln Center earlier

watching Ballet Theatre
or New York City ballet.

And it was a shock, I think,
for some of our clientele, too,

but they came.

-We danced in New York,
you know, exclusively

in our early years,

but once we got to be
sort of a thing in New York,

we realized we wanted to do more
than just dance in a loft.

I'm not sure
touring was in our heads,

but a lot of agents
approached us,

and they said,
"We will manage you guys.

We will book your tours.

We'll put you out there,

but we won't
put you in our brochure

and we won't promote you."

It was maybe an anti-gay thing.

Maybe they thought...
And I think

this is probably
not a bad thought...

that we would damage
their serious concert artists.

You know, you can't have

Dame Myra so-and-so
at the harpsichord

and the drag ballet
on the next page.

Then we took a meeting
with a man named Sheldon Soffer,

and Sheldon Soffer, who was
a very distinguished agent,

Sheldon, not only did he put us
in the brochure,

he said, "I'm gonna put you
on the
cover
of the brochure."

And he did what no other manager
in New York would do...

he honored us for who we were.

And I think that outraged
a lot of people,

but he sure did get us
a lot of tour dates.

But the very first tour date
we had was South Bend, Indiana.

And if you can imagine
in those times,

we were really frightened.

"How are we
gonna take this show,

which is a total
downtown phenomenon,

and move this
to South Bend, Indiana?

What is gonna happen to us?"

We were just sure that,
you know,

nobody would really get this

outside the hothouse world
of ballet in New York.

When we left New York, we said
goodbye to all of our friends.

We were sure
we would never come back...

They'd kill us
out there on the road.

And so we landed
in South Bend, Indiana.

They had just built

this beautiful
performing arts center.

We thought, "Oh, my God, we're
gonna desecrate the building,

and they're gonna
run us out of town on a rail,

and it's gonna be awful."

But we went to the theatre,
made up, and we did the show,

and they loved us.

They absolutely loved us.

You know, this is
a strict Midwestern audience.

We started touring, and people
just took us right away.

Maybe we were living
in our own little planet,

because, you know, anybody
who tours understands this...

you don't see anything
of the city that you're in.

You see your hotel
and you see your dressing room

and you see the stage.

And, again, we were never out
in our tutus,

so we weren't
where someone would attack us.

As far as I can remember, nobody
ever threw anything at us.

-We went to strange places.

We played little towns that,

yes, we were kind of
afraid to go to.

Occasionally, we would
end up somewhere

and we would be staying
at the motel by the truck stop,

and we're going,

"This doesn't quite look like
where we want to be."

But once the audience came in
and started having a good time,

they didn't care,
because it was funny dancing,

and that, they could deal with.

[ Laughter ]

[ Laughter ]

-There's no question that people
who came to the Trocks

who laughed, who really thought
we were a great show,

also found that
gay people don't all bite.

Our show was just so benign
and it was so much fun.

[ Laughter ]

And there was no message
of bitterness or hate.

And I think, in a way,
people said,

"You know, these gay people
aren't so bad after all.

They made us laugh.

Grandma loved it.
The kids loved it."

And I think they did have

a different impression
of gay people.

♪

[ Laughter ]

We just did our show, you know,

and then we went home
and watched television.

♪

[ Laughter ]

-All my dance teachers, when I
told them what I was doing,

they said,
"That's a career-killer.

You will not have a dance career
after this is over.

You realize that?

You've just destroyed
your dance career."

I was working with two dancers
from the Graham Company.

They had their own company.

And I was learning this piece,
and it was all Graham.

And I thought it was supposed
to be tongue-in-cheek.

So in the rehearsal, you know,
I'm doing all this...

♪ Da-da-da-da, da-da-da,
hunh, hunh ♪

and all this absurd...
And on my knees

and all this, like,
falling to the floor.

And he stopped the rehearsal,
and he said,

"What are you doing?"

And I said, "I thought
this was supposed to be funny."

And there was like this, "Oooh."

And people, like, cleared
the rehearsal studio,

and he said, "It's not funny."

So, on my way home, I thought,

"There's something that I do
when I dance

that puts all this stuff
together,

and the only logical place
is Trockadero."

[ Laughter ]

♪

Getting hired by Trockadero
fulfilled

how could I dance
and carry on this tradition

of slapstick, insane situations,
and make the audience laugh.

[ Laughter ]

♪

-For some reason, I seem to have
a talent to make ballet funny.

♪

[ Laughter ]

♪

When the Trocks first started,
I spent a couple of months

in the Soviet Union
watching ballet.

I had to join some communist
organization in order to get in.

And that's all I did.
I threw my card away after that.

And in a funny way, that's
where the Trockadero was born.

[ Laughter ]

I saw a kind of way people
danced in the old Soviet Union

that was so old-fashioned.

Nobody danced like that anymore.

But that kind of had a lot
to do with me understanding

what ballet used to look like
and that it could be funny.

And so as a choreographer,

I was always seeking
to dive down

past the steps
into some cultural information

that would make a ballet appear
funny to a modern audience.

That's why the Trockadero always
looks sort of over-the-top...

because we were dancing in a way

that people stopped dancing
30 years before.

♪

So, as a choreographer,

I kind of always
looked at history

and I looked at precedent

and I looked at
what people had done before,

and I wanted to sort of
bring back things that had died.

I mean, it's like trying to
bring back high-button shoes,

I suppose, and I thought living
in the past was interesting

and that I could make it funny.

What could I do to turn it
and twist it?

And I was always looking
at the mechanics of ballet

and how could I use the
mechanics to make it humorous.

I mean, this became the way
the Trockadero performed.

And so everything we did
was real information.

We didn't have to make
a lot of those jokes up.

They were already there,
just waiting to be shown.

[ Laughter ]

And so, a lot of people
would say

I don't honor it
and I don't value it,

but actually, I really do
and I really did.

And that's the only reason
it became really funny...

because it was from a place
of honor, from a place of love.

♪

-If it feels really sticky now,

it's because I was told
to Coke it,

'cause it was
really slippery before.

You know what it is?

It's like stepping on Saran Wrap
stretched over a tile.

-Sometimes you're performing
on cement,

sometimes
you're performing on wood,

sometimes you're performing
on a marble floor.

-I performed on grass.

- You performed on grass?
- Grass.

You know, the green stuff
that grows?

[ Laughs ]

♪

-What we do is very rigorous.

We do class in the morning,

we go into rehearsal,
We do the show.

♪

Rinse, repeat.

♪

-Boysie, what are you doing?

-Meditating.

-Meditating?

- Oh, really?
- Yeah.

-Curtain in five minutes,

and then we will
be starting on time.

This is five minutes.

[ Indistinct talking ]

♪

-[ Speaking Italian ]

Are you doing
the first variation?

Would you like to do it for us?

The way casting works is,
I mean, first of all,

everybody has to be able
to do the technical parts,

so when I started
to become director,

I changed the casting
so there would be multiple casts

for all the leading roles.

I thought "There's enough
for everybody."

So everyone got to do something,

so you didn't have a bunch
of seething people, you know,

waiting for someone
to leave or to die

so that they could get the role.

And that actually
was instrumental

in changing the atmosphere
of the company

because everyone started
rooting for each other.

♪

Ballet is a classical art,

and so when you have
classical art,

there are rules
that one must follow...

same sizes, shape of the foot,
size of the head.

But this is not what we do.

We're a comedy company,

so a comedy company
works better with diversity.

♪

-And we move very fast.

♪

-Comedy tends to work better
if it's a little fast,

so we want everything to be
as fast as possible.

Sometimes the newer dancers have
a really hard time with that.

And my line is that,
"The music is never too fast.

You're too slow."

Head to the left!
Head to the left!

♪

Did you ever get into a fight?

-Like, a physical?

- Mm-hmm.
- No. I try not to.

-So, what you need to do
is just walk towards him.

Just like that, and you don't
need to do anything else.

-When you first
join the company,

probably you don't have
any experience with comedy,

but then you develop it
over time.

-5, 6, 7, 8.

-And you get some mentoring
from the director.

He tells you,
"Think about it this way.

Has this ever happened to you?"

And then it clicks.

These feet are tired!

♪

Then I'm able to use that,
and then I take it on stage,

and then... let's say,
the entrance to "Swan Lake."

It took me
a very, very long time

to get the audience to laugh
at my first entrance.

If you don't get that smile
just cheesy enough, oh, my God,

this is gonna be really hard.

[ Applause ]

If they don't laugh, then I know
I have to work much harder

on my comedy
throughout the rest of the show

to get them on board.

♪

No matter who you are, you can
find your own inner comedian.

♪

[ Laughter ]

-Some people, you actually need
to coach into a specific way.

Because they don't
really understand

the point of view
or the sensibility.

And some people, you need to
let alone because they got it.

[ Laughter ]

And if you try to fine-tune it,
they lose that.

♪

♪

-Here we go.

-Tory informed me
that he wanted me

to run through the lead
in "Paquita."

-He came in, and he knew
the entire thing.

No one had to say
anything to him.

That was somebody where you
have to stay out of their way.

♪

- That was lovely, Philip.
- That was excellent.

-Lovely. That was lovely.

-When it comes to
classical choreography,

I am able to pick up
very quickly

and memorize it very quickly

because of my autism.

-And 1, yum-pa, yum-pa, yum-pa.

-My autism helped the ballet

because I was able to have
that lock in focus,

being able to let
my obsession obsess.

♪

-And out and fifth, 2.

Pas de chat, plié,
and in and in.

-I didn't know
that I was autistic

until I was 10 years old.

-1 and 2 and up.

And 1, 2. Shoulders up.

-I had
so much expression inside,

but it couldn't come out.

My thoughts, my feeling,
speaking...

almost every aspect was locked.

I was teased every day,
made fun of every day,

hit every day.

There were people always trying
to make me feel ashamed

of me being myself,
me living, me being a person.

Ballet was the only place where
I was able to dry off the tears.

[ Indistinct talking ]

♪

♪

-Alright, guys,
take off your shoes.

Just shoes.

When you're ready,
we're gonna go say hello

to Mr. Philip,
our ballet teacher.

-Hi. How are you?

This class,
even though they have

their own dance therapy classes
at their school...

-Aah!

-You guys can have a seat
on the floor

while we're waiting
for class to start.

...they rarely get to do
full-on ballet therapy class.

So this is when...

Just relax.

...they can really get excited
and they can really go for it

and they can really just
let loose and enjoy themselves.

3 and 4.

And side, side.

Up, around, and over.

Side.

Around the world and up.

♪

Straight up.

♪

Let's go again.

I definitely see myself
in those kids.

I was just like them.

Are we ready for the next part?

I see the wonder.
I see the no filter.

You open your legs.

Very vulnerable.

Now we're gonna go
into third position.

It's really beautiful.

Can I see your first position?

Here.

I was very lucky to get to teach
at a very early age.

And rise.

Very good.

Correct.

Let me see everyone else.

Good.

And I fell in love with it.

Ready?

6, 7, 8.

Jump, 2, 3, 4...

5, 6, 7, 8...

9, 10, 11, 12.

I would be very happy
to see in this class

these kids, of course,
with a smile on their face.

And straight back.

And with kids of
all different ranges and levels,

what I'm looking for

is the children's
natural sense of sync,

which is meaning we're feeling
each other's energy

and we're moving all as one,

trying to all be
cohesive together.

A lot of people think
autistic children

cannot be cohesive
as a group together,

but they are able to do this,
to most people's surprise.

Now hold on to the barre
and go into your plié.

Keep this straight
the whole time.

Now go down.

Doing these classes with them,

it really helps not only
for them to understand

their body coordination
and their own strengths...

Very good.

Plié and lift up, up, up, up.

Good.

...their own vulnerabilities,
their own self-confidence.

That's right. That's good.

But it's good for me
because it helps me

to always remember
where I came from.

Alright, are we ready?

Who's number 1?

- He was number 1.
- You were number 1?

So let's do one number 1 again.

I needed help
to get through this.

And 1, 2, 3, 4.

And turn, 2, 3, 4.

1, 2, 3, 4.

Next up.

And go around that way.

And 1, 2, 3, 4.

1, 2, 3, 4.

Now that I don't really need
that help anymore,

it's up to me to do that,
to give the help back.

So that's why I do it.
That's why I teach these kids.

2, 3, 4.

1, 2, 3, 4.

And 1, 2, 3.

Can we go on those high tiptoes?

High, high tiptoes.

And 1, 2, 3, 4.

And turn.

And...

It's amazing.
It's really amazing.

And up, 2, 3, 4.

-Ballet is a profession.
It's a calling.

You're called to dance.

You
must
dance.

You know,
Balanchine once said, famously,

"I don't want people
who would like to dance.

I want people who
must
dance."

-Thank you.

-You have to give yourself up
in order to serve the art.

Ballet is so big
and it's so all-encompassing.

Even if it's drag ballet,
even if it's comedy ballet,

even if you're joining
the Trockadero,

your problems have to take
a back seat

to how you can serve
the choreography

and how you can
serve the audience.

And in a funny way, this has
a great way of healing people.

♪

-Towards the end of my career
as a Trock, in '82, '83,

we had gone that year
from somewhere in Texas to...

we went from hot to cold,

and two people in the company
got really sick.

My roommate at the time,
Sanson Candelaria,

woke up one night in Chicago...
This was in winter...

Dripping wet.

He said to me, "I'm gonna die.
I'm dying. I'm gonna die."

And I said, "You're not
gonna die. I don't know.

You have some kind of fe...
I don't know.

Let's get you an aspirin."

Nothing dawned on me
what was going on.

And then we were
in San Francisco,

and I did see this article in
the paper about this gay cancer.

And then other people in
the company started to get sick.

I was like, "Oh. Oh."

-There was a period
when four or five of our dancers

were dying of AIDS.

I would be dancing with them,

and months later,
they were gone.

Sanson...

I had danced with Sanson
as my Swan Queen for years,

and all of a sudden,
I didn't have Sanson anymore.

-I hired Sanson
when I started the company,

and he was clearly heads above
any of the other dancers.

He was the first
really, really good dancer

that joined the Trockadero.

He was the first one
in the rehearsal,

the first one
in the dressing room,

and the last one to leave
at night.

Everything he did had a level of
seriousness and professionalism,

you know, that the rest of us
sort of lacked.

But he was very funny, too.

More than anybody else in
the company, he loved to dance.

-I remember this story

that Sanson had just
gotten out of the hospital

and he was well enough
to do "Swan Lake."

And there's this moment
in "Swan Lake"

where the Swan Queen
is all the way down

and then the prince
picks up the Swan Queen

and they're gonna do
their dance.

And, um, that moment...

[ Voice breaking ]
it was breathtaking.

-Sanson died midway through
the worst of the AIDS crisis.

He lost so much...

lost his strength,
lost his stamina.

He was way too young.

♪

-That the company kept going
is just amazing in itself,

because, like every other
dance company,

so many people got sick.

Um...

Those people that passed,
especially Sanson,

they are with me all the time...
All the time.

♪

-None of us thought
the company would last.

The company didn't think
it would last,

and
I
didn't think
it would last.

But it's about faith.

You have to have faith
in something.

If you don't have any faith,
you don't have anything.

What do you hold on to?

Where's your refuge in life?

Doesn't have to be religion.

For a lot of people,
it's dancing.

It's very, very powerful.

It's primal.

A lot of companies really have
kind of lost that faith

in the thing itself
and what it means.

[ Laughs ] But, oddly,
the Trockadero has not.

What's happened over this
45 years is now, in a funny way,

the Trockadero is
the keeper of the flame.

♪

-Are you doing soft shoes, Josh?

- No, ma'am.
- Okay.

-Pointe shoes.

If we're gonna do this,
we're gonna do it.

This is about tenacity,
perseverance.

That's really what the American
spirit is all about.

-♪ La

-Aah! That was a mistake!
That was a mistake.

-[ Russian accent ] Good
evening, ladies and gentlemen.

In accordance with the greatest
tradition of the Russian ballet,

there will be changes
in this evening's program.

I'm really excited
about performing

in celebration to Stonewall.

We are charged.
We're ready. Yeah.

We regret to announce
the absence

in this evening's program
of Natasha Notgoodenoff.

[ Laughter ]

For us performing here
at Summerstage during Pride,

I feel that sometimes we forget
how things were before.

But we'll make the best
of making this night memorable.

We wish to remind you
that the use of cellular phones,

the taking of photographs,

and video recording
are strictly prohibited.

Rattling noises
and sudden bursts of light

tend to remind
our more fragile ballerinas

of terrible Bolshevik gunfire.

[ Laughter ]

-There goes Julie Andrews
after too many martinis.

-Trockadero is
such an institution

within the gay community.

-Makeup is ready.
Kind of.

-And I feel really proud to be
a part of something like that.

[ Cheers and applause
in distance ]

-They liked that one,
didn't they?

-And to be part
of the celebration,

this is one of the most special
moments of my dance career.

-Ready?

-Stonewall was a unique moment
in New York City.

What made Stonewall special was
that people could dance there.

And it was joyous.

Over and over again,
I heard people talk about

how important dancing was

and why shutting down
that particular bar

and making it impossible
for these young people to dance

infuriated them.

This was the one place
where they felt safe,

one place
where they could dance,

one place
where they could be close

and do what everyone else did.

[ Cheers and applause ]

-Thank you, Central Park.
We love you.

♪

-What I love about the Trocks

deciding to do
"Stars and Stripes Forever"

for the 50th anniversary
of Stonewall

is that it's so in keeping
with who they are.

♪

Totally subversive.

And to do it in Central Park,
where many

of the great performances
of all time have been done,

and they did it in plain sight,
I love that.

It's joyous fun
that speaks to what it means

to be an American
in an all-inclusive America...

and, I like to think,
a
hopeful
America.

♪

- "Stars and Stripes" is
Balanchine's love letter

to America.

He loved America,
and he did a lot of ballets

that had to do with the kind of
1950s patriotic feelings.

It's the Eisenhower era.

It's the America
that defeated Hitler.

It's that America
that he was celebrating.

It's more like
a Fourth of July message.

♪

Well, the Trocks'
"Stars and Stripes"

is a love letter, too.

But in a way,
it's a reverse love letter,

because what it means is
America has taken in the Trocks

as part of our culture.

[ Cheers and applause ]

♪

The Trockadero was
a militant organization

because we were breaking
all of the statues.

We were smashing all the icons.

Now, mind you,
we did it all nicely

and it was all done with culture
and sophistication...

Sort of.

And that made people laugh.

America has fallen in love
with the Trocks.

[ Cheers and applause ]

♪

♪

♪

♪

♪

♪