TORY DOBRIN – Artistic Director of Les Trocks
Interviewer: P Hayward 22nd April 2026
LES BALLETS TROCKADERO DE MONTE CARLO was founded in 1974 by New York City-based ballet enthusiasts in order to present a playful, entertaining view of traditional, classical ballet in parody form and with men performing all of the roles – and in the case of roles usually danced by women: en travesti and en pointe. They soon garnered critical acclaim made their first extended tour of the United States and Canada. In 1980 a young dancer, Tory Dobrin joined the company and now in 2026, still with the company, he is artistic director.
Today he’s in New York readying for another overseas tour, this time in conjunction with Dance Consortium, which will open in Dublin on the 30th April before moving into Sadler’s Wells in London and then out on a UK wide tour arriving in Southampton at Mayflower Theatre on 19th May. He has put aside some time to talk with me about his wonderful world of Les Trocks.
PH: Tory can you tell me a little about your role in the Les Trocks company?
TD: My role within the company is Artistic Director, one that I have held since the 90s. It is a many faceted role, selecting programmes, commissioning new works, and ensuring that the company are trained, developed and are at the peak of their performance capabilities. It is different to any other dance company as a Trocks dancer is the divergence of their stage life. They must master the male role as the danseur and the female role as the ballerina, often switching within the same evening.
It is a technical challenge for the dancer to master the proper style and understanding of a role, before any comedy can even be considered. Actually it’s not too much different from what goes on in most other dance companies as they all approach the characteriasations first before any humour or emotion is added. I consider it of high importance that we encourage the dancers to explore their personalities and develop their own temperaments to the roles. I encourage this approach as it leads to the humour feeling organic rather than scripted; it varies from dancer to dancer, night to night. It is not mockery; it is a mirror held up to the art form’s excesses. Once a dancer knows who his character is we can start looking at our work from a comedy point of view, using classical ballet, drag and other elements of gay sensibility, to achieve the desired effect. The goal isn’t to diminidh the importance of ballet, but to let the audience know that there is humour just waiting to escape and let them be part of it. I guess my purpose in this role is to make sure that anyone who comes to see the show will enjoy themselves and appreciate the skill that this takes, leaving the theatre with a better understanding of what we are doing It’s a deceptively simple ambition: come for the drag, stay for the technique.
PH: How did you become part of the company?
TD: Having joined the company as a dancer in 1980, just six years after The Trocks were born in a New York that was grittier, dangerous, and decidedly less corporate, where performances were held at midnight in lofts in downtown Manhattan, back then, it was a subculture phenomenon, a late-night secret shared by those in the know. In those six years The Trocks had begun to be recognised as a dance company and one that was bringing a different take on classical ballet. It was an exciting time to be a young dancer in the company and being able to dance in more traditional performance spaces. By the time I became Artistic Director in 1992 we had become a dance company with an ardent following and a reputation. The foundations had been laid to enable me to take the company to another level entirely emphasising comedy as a vehicle for celebrating and critiquing ballet traditions while ensuring technical excellence and now we can say we have performed in over 675 cities and 44 countries, which is incredible in what is a relatively short period of time.
PH: Did you first become interested in dance as a child?
TD: I grew up in the Fairfax area of Los Angeles during the 1960s. During high school, an earthquake condemned a neighboring school (L.A. High School), leading to a merger of students at my school (Fairfax High School) that prompted me to join a dance class to fulfill my physical education requirement, marking the beginning of a formal exposure to the arts. I didn’t have any professional aspirations but I was initially drawn to modern dance and had the chance to study with teachers trained in the Martha Graham and Humphrey-Weidman techniques at various studios in the area, performing with an unorganised modern dance company. Then when I was 17, I started classical ballet training with the influential teacher Carmelita Maracci in Los Angeles, who was as an insane, brilliant woman whose intense and inspiring methods shaped my early technique. I then spent a year of college in Paris studying mime at the Étienne Decroux school but found it unappealing and returned to Los Angeles for more intensive dance work. In the 1970s, I moved to Houston, Texas, where I was able to train at the Houston Ballet Academy. My first professional ballet experience came when I joined the Dallas Ballet for one season, an organised company role that tested my resolve amid personal insecurities about my own skills. I recognised that beginning ballet relatively late at 17 imposed technical limitations compared to those who started as children, I focused on building strength through consistent pointe classes, to fortify my legs and feet. Then in 1977, I moved to New York City and took classes, while auditioning for modern and Broadway opportunities before fully committing to ballet. These formative years established a rigorous classical foundation that later helped with my comedic interpretations, blending technical precision with expressive flair.
PH: In your time with The Trocks how has the company changed?
TD: Very little has changed. We have stayed close to out principles and we continue to approach our work from a comedy point of view to achieve the desired effect. Our goal isn’t to dismantle ballet, but to let the audience in on the joke. Contrary to general belief modern audiences continue to come along for the comedy, good dancing, colorful costumes, music that has catchy tunes, and a fun night out and not ‘spectacle’. Ours is a show that regularly features physically impossible lifts and breathless costume changes. The main change has been the widespread acceptance of the company from society, audiences at large and the dance community. But, perhaps the most telling shift in the company’s 50-year history is the demographic in the stalls. Once the preserve of the late-night downtown crowd, the Trocks have become, improbably, family entertainment. I would say that the biggest change is there are now many children in the audience to see us. In 1980, our performance was not considered appropriate for children, now we are considered a great introduction to dance for children. There is something delightful about that evolution. The subversion has become a gateway drug to the classics. The kids come for the pratfalls and the “Dying Swan” shedding feathers like a moulting pillow; they stay because they are witnessing elite athleticism.
PH: Touring has become a major feature in the development of your company, how important is that to you and your performers?
TD: Over the years the number of overseas dancers joining our company has grown and this makes international touring so much more interesting for the whole company. As I said we have performed in over 40 countries, we have graced the Bolshoi, played the Esplanade in Singapore and even performed at The UK’s Roayl Variety Performance. To be honest international touring is no more arduous than a North American tour, in fact as with the UK it is often easier for each individual. With a USA tour, it is one city, one performance and move on, with flight delays, hotels on the highway, getting ubers to a restaurant, it can be stressful and tiring, not what top flight athletes (for that’s what we are) need to maintain their peak. When we do a UK tour it is in partnership with Dance Consortium, a co-production company that we have worked closely with for many years, in fact I developed a very good relationship with Heather Knight and even though she has retired we still keep in touch. The other interesting factor is that Dance Consortium is a partnership between a number of major British theatres across the nation that have a focus on dance and as a result we perform a couple of nights at each venue, we stay close to the theatres and get an opportunity to explore and unlike at home, travelling between cities tends to be a lot easier. The upcoming tour is a marathon, stretching from the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre in Dublin to the Buxton Opera House, with stops in London, Southampton, Edinburgh, and beyond. The tour opens on 30th April and continues through until 24th June. In the UK the atmosphere in the theatre is energetic, lively and fun… this helps immensely, it keeps the tour bus moving. British audiences tend to be very receptive and interact more, I guess to some extent it’s down to the heritage of British theatre from the days of music hall through the culture of family pantomime with the traditional dames – so I guess for the audiences especially the younger ones they are familiar with many of the concepts that we bring to dance.
PH: What does the future hold for Tory Dorbin and Les Trocks?
TD: Well I’m not getting any younger, so I have started thinking about making a transition, but this company is so important to me that I have no plans or intentions of stepping away in the forseeable future. As for Les Trocks we will continue to build on our growing reputation as a significant international dance company, in fact we now often perform with orchestras, which is a big expansion of our roots, no longer a scrappy troupe with a backing track; we command the same symphonic resources as the institutions we lampoon. We are no longer just a dance troupe we have branched out from live performances and expanded our scope with an education program and the establishment of the Choreography Institute. Looking further forward, I would like to skewer some more modern sacred cows as there are choreographers I’d love to parody like William Forsythe, Wayne McGregor, Twyla Tharp, and maybe, most of all, Frederick Ashton. I plan to spend more of my creative time back near my roots, in California, away from the cities and enjoy the magnificent countryside. But for now, all focus is on the upcoming tour of the UK and Ireland. We are looking forward to welcoming everyone who comes to see the show, knowing that they will enjoy themselves, appreciate our skills and leave the theatre with a broader understanding of what we truly are about.
PH: With an eye on the clock Tory I would like to thank you for your time today and to just say how much I am looking forward to see Les Ballets Troacadero De Monte Carlo at Mayflower Theatre in Southampton on 19th May.
Leave a Reply